Mother nature and father time are truly 2 of a kind.

Joined at the hip since their humble beginnings, they've worked together their whole lives. And because of that they know each other like the back of their hands, so mother nature knows that father time can be a bit of a hoarder on occasion.

So, she insists on helping him do some spring cleaning, when she notices the clutter start to pile up. And father time has enough self-awareness and humility to let mother nature do this.

This time however she found herself enlisting the help of a certain ice spirit in the aftermath of reformation to aid her. Hesitant at first, but seeing it as an opportunity to catch up, she calls up the one and only Jack frost. Who, as a testament to his changed ways, says yes to the occasion; and provides physical labor for the sole purpose of just helping someone out?

"That can just go right over there jack", Mother nature beacons from across the room. Jack follows the directions and takes a few more steps to the right and dumps a small wooden chest on the ground with a huff.

"What's even in this thing?" he questioned as he took a second to catch his breath. He put his hands on his knees and looked over the chest again. A normal, dark oak storage box that was fairly small, but densely packed.

Mother nature continued to move across the dark pristine floor, picking up stacks of books she was organizing.

She looks back over at Jack to answer, "Oh that's just some of my things. Some miscellaneous items left here at one point or another. Anything of mine you end up finding just put it in there".

When she turns back around, Jack drops to the floor and opens up the chest to rifle through its belongings. Jack has gone through a lot in the past year or so, he's more or less a changed man in many ways.

But he still maintains a sense of unbridled curiosity, that he will always take a risk on.

He shuffles around the items for anything that really strikes him as interesting. There's a handful of magic rune stones, a pouch of Everflower seeds, a stack of letters bound in a red string, and a tiny circular music box, among other far more innocuous objects.

'Is that really all that's in here?', he thought as he continued to disturb the items in the chest. A little disappointed that there's not really anything good in here. To think that the life bringer of all mankind and the harbinger of all natural power, only has rocks and junk mail in her possession.

He pauses for a moment when he spots it.

"What is this?", he quietly mutters to himself as he pulls out the piece of intrigue, Brushing off the dust layers with his hand. And of course, the reason it's so interesting to him is because it's none other than a photo of himself.

It's an old picture frame made out of weathered bronze, containing a sepia stained photograph of him from the shoulders up. No discernible expression on his face, considering that's what was in style for photos in the day.

While it was worn and rusted in some areas, honestly it was in pretty good condition considering when it was taken. The label written on the bottom left corner of the frame read 'J.F. 1872' in dried ink. The handwriting, while not his own, was all too familiar.

"Where on earth did you get this?" He called out to mother nature from across the room.

She turned around to face him and took a few steps in his direction to see what he was holding in his outstretched hand. Her face twitched slightly at the realization.

"Oh, that? Oh, I have no idea. Cannot recall where that came from. That's why I have father time you know. So, he can remember all that stuff from me", she replied.

She turned back around towards the book stacks without another word on the matter, leaving Jack with a hunch.

He kept the frame in his hand as he closed the chest lid, "Uh huh. Right. But I will say i do not take a bad photo".

Mother nature laughed at the notion, "Oh please. Those cardboard standees are proof that isn't true. Now come over here, and hold these for a sec". She faced him expectantly holding a large stack of books in her arms.

Before he turned around, Jack quickly tucked the small frame in his coat jacket and got off the floor to help.

"I'm only a little bitter, that you wouldn't let me keep just one", he explained as she dropped some of the books into his arms "they didn't ALL have to go into the fire".

Mother nature smiled down at him "One of the best decisions i ever made".

After a couple more hours of dragging Jack through the job, they cleaned up what was left and called it quits for the day.

"Thank you again for helping out today jack. I know you can get pretty busy", mother nature expressed as Jack grabbed his coat and threw it over his shoulder.

"Oh please! It's no big deal really, it's the off season anyway", he explained nonchalantly. He threw his jacket over his shoulder and rocked ever so slightly on his heels. He was almost avoiding eye contact with them to try and hide the fact that he was also glad that he came by and just talked.

It has been a long while since all three of them were able to do such monotonous tasks and have pleasant small talk, and after everything that's happened, it was a surprisingly pleasant change of pace.

Father time took notice of the two and strolled toward the pair to see the legend off on his way "It was good to catch up Jack. Thank you for coming by it hasn't always been this way but, it was nice to see you", he stated sincerely.

A little caught off guard by his earnest comment, Jack (ironically) froze for a second.

"Ye-yes! Absolutely, it has been a marvelous time, really. And! As a note. Disappointed but not all that surprised by the amount of stuff you have, honestly, I thought there would be more!" Jack iterated, flattered, but tried to change the subject as fast as possible so no one notices.

Father time chuckled, "You've just caught me on a good day".

"I shudder to think of what a bad day looks like" Jack joked "Oh! And mother nature, I put that chest of your things by the library door."

With that last note, he then slowly headed for the door, "I gotta get going though. I'll see you guys around!"

Mother nature and father time both shouted a Goodbye in unison as they watched the spirit take his leave. They sat back in the refreshingly amiable atmosphere for a beat, reveling in the fact that they now have a far more delightful relationship with their former ward than in millions of years prior. They shared a look of satisfaction with each other before moving deeper into the tower to finish up and part ways themselves.

Mother nature found herself at the entrance of the library where she had spent most of the day, and just as he said the chest of her belongings stood aside at the doorway next to an accent table against the wall.

When she bent down and took the chest in her hands, she was suddenly made aware of something sitting on the table. The photo of Jack from earlier sitting on a folded piece of paper.

Curious, she set the chest back down and picked up both items in each hand. She fixated on the photo for a moment, remembering not being too proud of how she got it, but the rather bittersweet feeling of almost having him with her during the time.

Before she could dance too far into the ballroom of memories however, she decided to give the piece of paper some attention. She unfolded it to reveal a handwritten note from jack:

Mother nature,

You can't fool me that easily. You and I both know that all three of us were not on speaking terms from 1859 to 1902. And I know you certainly did not get this photo from me. So, you must have gotten the photo from the only other person I was talking to at the time. There's no hard feelings about this now of course, but I can use this as ammunition against Kills in the future, so I thank you for that.

I also appreciate that you ended up keeping the photo all this time. When things were, really bad between us. It's nice to know that you still cared. Even in retrospect.

Thank You,

Jack frost

P.S.

Please don't tell anyone about this, I have a reputation to uphold.

She gave a small chuckle through a heartwarming smile, folding the paper back up. She looked back on the old times rather fondly. And yes, there was a rather large rough patch, but now, she can look forward to actually having good memories with him again.