"Jack, are you sure about this?" Nathalie frowned nervously from atop her Pegasus. The horse, sensing her anxiety, tossed its mighty head with a whinny, its mane rippling like thick cloth as it stamped a hoof against the concrete road in the quite Maine neighborhood. Following her recovery in the Tooth Palace, Nathalie had been shuttled to North's Arctic workshop in a desperate exercise to try and keep Pitch Black from locating her again; the elves and yetis could only amuse the energetic Jack for so long, and while he had been poking around looking for something to entertain him, he had spontaneously decided to pay a visit to the sleepy little town where his beloved friend Jamie resided. Nathalie had vaguely recalled mention of the little boy during their first meeting. "North will not approve of our sneaking out," she fretted, "and this is where you first spotted Pitch, correct? What if he decides to attack us again? The little boy will be caught up in the crossfire…"

"It's all right, Nat," the frost spirit replied reassuringly as he sidled up to the horse's flank to offer her a hand. As she took it, trying to ignore the prickling pain that bloomed across her palm and fingers from the ice crystals settling there, she slid down from the horse's back. "It was Jamie and his friends that helped defeat Pitch last time. He knows better than to show his face around here." The confident smile on his face eased her nerves a little, but only just. Compulsively, she smoothed down the creases in the fabric of her dress, looking down. She gasped lightly as his finger caught the underside of her chin, tilting it back up so his ice-crystal ice could meet hers of summer leaves. "Promise. You worry so much, you know; can you just enjoy this? For me?"

Nathalie's shoulders sagged as she breathed out a loving sigh. He is doing this all for me, she thought with a swelling heart. Nathalie had been basically a nervous wreck the entirety that they had been in contact, between keeping her secret and the looming threat of death, so of course there had been little time to actually enjoy herself. For his sake, she took a deep breath while pushing back the flood of nervous energy writhing inside of her. She deserved at least a few moments of respite; it couldn't hurt. Jack smiled sunnily as she opened her eyes to nod encouragingly at him. "Atta girl. Now, come on!" he grinned as he pranced over to the sidewalk and hopped over a wooden fence.

Her Pegasus snorted and meandered into the neighboring yard to begin munching on the grass; it was as invisible as she, considering humans no longer believed in such creatures, so Nathalie didn't give much thought to hiding him. She followed after Jack, creating a stairway in the form of a twisted, gnarled tree that curved in an extreme spiral and whose trunk could easily bear her weight. She skipped over its uneven, bumpy surface, the soles of her bare feet causing new branches to bud, before she hopped down from the top of the fence. As the wind rushed into the skirt of her dress, she hastily pressed down the front to preserve some of her modesty, but the sides fluttered up around her thighs and gave much more of a show than she would've pleased. When she looked up with a red face, she saw Jack leaning against the siding of the house, arms crossed and looking like he had thoroughly enjoyed it. Has he not matured at all in four hundred years?! She thought incredulously, face burning like the surface of the sun itself. His smirked widened at her obvious fluster. Apparently not. Nat didn't know what was worse; his reaction or the fact that she kind of enjoyed it.

"Ah-ahem, Jamie?" she reminded him with a polite cough.

"Oh, right, duh," he sputtered with a slight jerk and light blush. He whipped away from the wall to pick up a small pebble, then turned around and chucked it at the second-floor window. A second later, the bottom pane was flung up and a toothy, messy-haired young boy was sticking his head out.

"Hey! Jack!" When he flashed the teenager a bright grin, Nat giggled; the fact that he was missing a tooth made him all the more adorable. "I'll be right down!" he shouted down and his tousled head disappeared back into the room. Nat winced as she heard quite a lot of painful-sounding thumps and bangs, followed by the boy's irritated yelps. She could even hear his little feet pounding through the house as he descended the stairs and careened through the halls to come bursting out of the front door, panting heavily from excited exertion and shoes flopping, untied on his feet. "Jack! Where've ya been? I missed you!" he squealed as he flung himself at Jack from several yards away.

"Whoa!" Jack cried, having to dip far forward to keep Jamie from face-planting into the dirt. The boy only giggled ecstatically as Jack enveloped him in a tight, crushing hug. Unseen by Jamie, Nathalie smiled heartwarmingly at the scene; the purely happy smile that was alighting Jack's pale face was plenty testament to how special the little boy was to him.

After a minute of embracing, Jack pulled back and rested his hands one either of Jamie's shoulders. "Jamie, I got someone I want ya to meet."

"Ooh? Who is it? Who is it? Oh my God, it's March, is it a leprechaun?" he screamed, jumping up and down so vigorously that one of his loose shoes actually did fling off and shoot into one of the rosebushes. "Oops."

"No, it's not the leprechaun! Calm down and just let me tell you!" Jack laughed while rowdily trapping him in a headlock and drilling his fist into the top of Jamie's head to further muss his already messy hair. Jamie obviously was in no sort of pain, because he squealed in laughter and kicked out his legs wildly, clutching onto the muscle of Jack's bicep with repeated giggles of "Okay, okay!" Arm still slackly wrapped around his little neck, Jack crouched down a little to whisper in his ear before gesturing with his chin in Nathalie's direction. She flushed lightly and made sure she was presentable, tucking in any stray hairs and smoothing down her dress again, before straightening her back and smiling with all the grace of a queen. Jamie blinked a few times, trying to process whatever Jack had uttered in his ear, before his eyes went as wide as dinner plates.

"Woooooowww! You're so pretyyyyyyy!" he cooed in utter delight. Nathalie chuckled shyly and swept a swathe of her blonde hair behind her ear.

"Why, thank you, Jamie."

"You know my name?!"

"Of course. I was very excited to meet you."

"Oh, boy, oh, boy! Show me what you can do? Please, please, please?!" he begged, writhing around in Jack's grasp for a few moments before the teenager released him. He landed on his bum in the grass, but he lost no momentum; he immediately scrabbled to his feet, smearing grass stains over his one socked foot as he ran over to her excitedly. He circled her obsessively, running his hands over the silken fabric of her skirt and fingering the curled ends of her golden-blonde hair and exclaiming in awe at the quiver and bow strapped to her back. "You're an archer? That's so awesome!"

"He's an excitable one," Nat mused to Jack, who was watching the giddy boy with a warm, brotherly smile.

"Yep. Never a dull moment with Jamie." The boy had grabbed a piece of chalk lying discarded in the grass to zip over to the fence, drawing various targets into its surface while begging her to display her shooting prowess. Nathalie snickered in amusement, but his enthusiasm was quite infectious; she crossed the yard to stand at the side of the house, the maximum distance away from the targets, before removing her bow and notching an arrow into its taut string. She tossed her head to throw the hair on her right side away from her dominant arm, breathed in deeply to center herself, then pulled the arrow back over her shoulder to take aim. Her eyebrow quirked slightly as she noticed Jack shamelessly gawking at her arm muscles again. He has no subtlety when it comes to checking me out, does he? She thought wryly. Well, if Jack and Jamie wanted a show, by all rights, she should give them one.

When Nat released the string, the arrow blasted from the bow to embed itself arrowhead-deep into the center of the first target, and trawling ivy began to twist and writhe into existence at its core. No sooner had the arrow left her bow did she nock another and send it screaming towards the next target; Jamie and Jack stood slack-jawed as she rapidly hit all seven targets in a matter of seconds, each arrow perfectly finding its mark and leaving the fence smothered in interlocking green leaves of ivy. A little smug, she even curtsied.

"That was unreaaaaaaaaal!" Jamie howled vivaciously once his brain had regained its ability to form words. Nat laughed and returned her bow to its rightful place, then walked to the fence to begin digging the arrows out of the wood. "Jack, you're girlfriend is amazing!" In an instant, Nathalie and Jack had identical blushes blazing across their shocked faces. As they both turned their backs to the puzzled little boy, both shielding their faces with their hands, he looked between them repeatedly. "What? Did I say something wrong? I thought you guys were, y'know-"

"You're right, Jamie, but it's still kinda embarrassing," Jack groaned. Of course he was right; after all, she and Jack had spent pretty much the entirety of yesterday afternoon cuddling and exchanging sweet nothings and occasionally little kisses, but… Nathalie's brains apparently had not truly registered their association as boyfriend and girlfriend. A mixture of mortified and overjoyed, she peered through her slender fingers at the white-haired boy, who was grinning shyly at her while rubbing the back of his neck. As their eyes met, his expression melted into one of undeniable affection, and her heart twisted into a happy little knot in her chest. My… boyfriend…

"Okay, stop looking at each other like that, it's gross!" Jamie complained while sticking out his tongue. Jack snorted and shoved him lightly in his shoulder.

"You brought it up!"

"Not so you two could make kissy faces at each other!"

"What the-? We were not! That's it, you little-"

"Aaaaaah!" Jamie screamed as Jack bowled him over to begin tickling his sides relentlessly. "Ah! No! Stop! I'm sorry! Please!" he howled in laughter as he writhed around under Jack's strong grip, tears pouring down his cheeks from the ticklish assault. Nathalie chuckled and kneeled down, watching the exchange with a smile. He really is like a big brother… It wasn't hard to imagine; he had a little sister at the time of his death, so those tendencies were almost ingrained in him. I'm glad that Jack has Jamie. He won't be as lonely. Jack gave Jamie's head one final, playful shove before hopping off him, leaving the little boy wheezing, flushed, and thoroughly giddy. His hair stuck up in odd places, decorated with blades of grass, as he looked at Nat breathlessly. "Eheh… Ehehe… So, Miss Mother Nature, you make the plants grow 'n stuff?"

"Nat is fine," she told him before swirling her hand, making a white lily bloom before her. "I am the one who brings spring to the world, like Jack does winter. My main duty is to cause the plants to return to life and jump-start their natural reproductive processes, but I can create them where I wish. I can also communicate with animals and create them, though that is much harder for me."

"Cooooool."

"Hey, why don't ya show him the Pegasus?"

"You have a Pegasus?" His jaw nearly hit the floor as he practically vibrated with excitement. Nathalie smirked and brought her fingers to her mouth to whistle for the winged house; as the shrieking noise pierced the air, it responded with a faraway neigh and the faint rush of feathers. A shadow fell over the backyard a few seconds later as it landed beside the now-standing Nat, and she ran a praising hand over the rippling muscles of its flank. Jamie had his fists balled up as he gawked at it with sparkling eyes, but seemed hesitant to approach, especially as the horse blew a sharp breath of air from its large nostrils and stamped at the ground.

"Come here, Jamie. He's very docile," she said with a reassuring wave of her hand. Jamie gulped audibly and timidly tip-toed over, keeping a wide berth until he was at Nat's side. She gently grabbed his wrist to pull his hand up to the horse's side, allowing him to pet the creature. He began chuckling nervously, hand stiffly patting its belly, before easing into long stroke. As the horse's wings folded at its side, he took to playing carefully with the feathers, appreciating their softness.

"He's beautiful." The horse appeared to have understood the compliment, as it reared its head around to nuzzle into his cheek. He shrieked with laughter and hugged its head to nuzzle it back. Nathalie smiled the entire time. It did her heart good to see a child like him so in awe and appreciative of nature- a sentiment much lost in the current generation of human beings.

"Wait until you see the dragon."

"The what?" Jamie breathed in a harsh, horse whisper, looking dangerously close to cardiac arrest. Nathalie's face immediately took on a pointed edge to glare warningly at Jack.

"What?"

"Jack, I cannot take him to the Tree of Life. It's much too dangerous!"

"The what?" Jamie breathed again, clutching his chest as he started breathing faster in pure rapture.

"Come on, Nat! Pitch has no idea where the Tree of Life is. Come on, he'd love all the little habitat bubbles, especially the dinosaurs!"

"The what?!" Jamie's face had taken on a pale pallor. Nathalie was quite concerned he would faint, so she braced her body behind him, all while continue to stare at Jack sternly.

"Jack, that is precisely how he could find the Tree of Life." She crossed her arms primly. She hated that she couldn't show Jamie the Tree of Life, as she was sure that he would be so very excited, but this was a line she simply could not cross. "This is exactly what he could be waiting for. Why go looking for it himself when I could simply lead him to it?"

"Well, that is exactly like Pitch," Jack conceded through clenched teeth. The disappointed look on his pale face, combined with Jamie tossing a pitifully pleading expression up at her, chipped away at her firm resolve. "You worry so much, you know. Can you just enjoy this? For me?" Jack's earlier words rang hollowly in her chest, making her cringe a little. It was dangerous, but perhaps she was overreacting? Pursing her lips as she wrestled with the decision, the two of them continue to stare expectantly at her, hastening the collapse of her willpower.

"Oh, good grief, all right," she consented with an exacerbated sigh. Simultaneously, they released triumphant crows and threw their fists in the air. "But," she added tersely while holding up her index finger, "it is to be only this one trip, and it will be brief."

"Thank you, Nat!" Jamie beamed and hugged her legs. Despite herself, she smiled and patted the top of his head. "Can I ride on the Pegasus?!" She nodded and picked him up to set him on the winged horse, watching as he babbled excitedly and patted the top of its head. She hesitated a moment before climbing up, weighted.

Why did she feel as if she were making a colossal mistake?