Another chapter~ :3

Some May-Jack bonding time, as requested by both Shamangirl1 and 13BlueBananas (which was ages ago, sorry it took so long ^^;)

Disclaimer: IDORotG

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Temper Tantrums

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He probably should have moved on by now; it was already a few weeks into spring, after all. But Jack couldn't bring himself to head down to Antarctica just yet. It was almost Easter and he wanted to watch the kids get all excited about Bunny's hard work (but making sure to stay out of the Pooka's sight so as not to get shooed away. Bunny may have forgiven him about the '68 incident, but he wasn't going to take any chances in bringing up old wounds).

What was even stranger for him was that he wasn't spending the last few weeks of his time by his lake; in fact he wasn't in Burgess at all. Instead, he was flying over England, taking in the sights and just enjoying the slightly warmer than normal breeze. Just because he was the embodiment of winter didn't mean he didn't like a little bit of warmth every now and then.

"Jack!"

Surprised by the sudden call of his name, Jack paused in midair, searching around him for the source of the familiar voice. A girl in a white dress and a matching sun hat suddenly flew up before him.

"Oh, hey, May," he greeted. "Nice hat."

"You like it? Can you believe it was just lying abandoned in a park?" she seemed a little taken aback by the compliment.

"Really? It's amazing what people just leave lying around, huh? Similar story with my hoodie."

May blinked, her whole demeanour changing from pleasant conversation to a rather flustered panic. "Oh, Jack! I need your help!"

Jack's eyes widened appropriately, easily picking up on her distress. "Me? You need ice and snow in spring?"

"Yes! Please, if we don't stop it everything will be destroyed!"

"Um, okay?" he was about to ask just what 'it' was but at his acquiescence she had heaved a huge sigh of relief and zipped off again in a dance of petals. "Whoa! Wait up!" he called to her, urging his own wind to help him catch up.

"May!" he shouted over the billowing wind speeding them along. "What exactly are we trying to stop?!"

"That!" she replied in a similarly raised tone, pointing down to the earth below.

Jack followed her finger with his eyes, faltering midflight as he took in the scene. May stopped just ahead of him when she realised he was no longer following.

"Please, we have to hurry!" she begged.

"Oh… right, I'm coming!" Jack re-angled himself, letting himself freefall in the direction of the torrent of water forcing its way through the countryside, swallowing everything in its path. The wind caught him just before he could dive head-first into the river and he immediately set to work, freezing large sections of the water at a time.

But in the warm sun and with the torrent unending, each chunk of ice he created was quickly overrun and destroyed, more water surging forward to replace it.

"This isn't going to work," he frowned as May came to a halt beside him, looking uncharacteristically worried.

"Th-There has to be something you can do!"

"What about trees?" he asked her. "If there's enough of them it should stop the land from falling away."

"I've tried that, but this isn't a regular flood."

Jack's brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what she meant by that. May bit her lip and looked away guiltily, understanding exactly what he was thinking.

"I… may have… gotten into a fight with some water nymphs…" she admitted.

Jack stared at her. "I'm sorry, you what?"

"Well, they were refusing to let me melt the snow around their river but I have to, it's part of my job, and I guess… they didn't take it very well."

Jack shook his head. "Only you, May," he muttered. "Only you."

The expression on her face turned to a mix of indignation and what appeared to be her attempt to hold back a lecture on the importance of seasonal duties.

"What I don't understand," Jack continued, cutting off the rant before it could begin, "is why cause a flood? Of all the ways they could have reacted, it just doesn't make sense. What do they have to gain by destroying the land?"

"It's not the land they're after," May said sadly. "It's my garden."

Oh. Oh that was not good. She had said that that garden was her pride and joy. Jack had never seen it, but he had no doubt it would be spectacular and a great crime for it (and her house) to get washed away just because of a few angry water spirits.

"Okay, I have an idea," he told her. "You go and try to redirect the flow of water. I've got some ladies to visit."

...

...

It was a simple matter of following the flooding river to find the nymphs responsible. It certainly didn't hurt that they were cackling maliciously as they surveyed their handy work, either. They spotted him approaching from above fairly quickly, not that he'd expected a subtle entrance. But, interestingly, they didn't seem displeased to see him.

"Jack Frost!" the one with short cropped dark blue hair gasped. "Hello, Jack Frost~"

Her sisters followed her gaze, smiling themselves as they noticed him.

"Welcome, Jack Frost~" the shortest with long sea-green hair waved.

"Oh how lovely to see you~" the last, tallest one beamed, flicking her curly aqua hair out of her face.

"Hi, ladies," Jack greeted awkwardly, stopping to hover in front of them. This wasn't the first time he'd spoken to them but he wasn't used to such a friendly welcome. Well, he supposed, nymphs were rather fickle creatures.

"What brings you here?" the short one asked.

"I'm actually here to ask you to call off your rampage," he admitted, pointing his staff at the water flowing underneath them.

"Oooooh~" the sisters crowed in disappointment.

"But Jaaaack!" the dark blue haired one whined.

"She started it!" the shortest added.

"By melting all the snow we were playing in!" the aqua haired one finished.

"Is destroying her home really the best way to deal with the situation?" Jack raised a brow.

The sisters pouted.

"I'll tell you what," Jack compromised, ignoring the little voice in the back of his mind that told him he was going to get an earful from not just May but Bunny, too. "If you stop this flood, I promise to give you as much snow to play in as you like."

The women's eyes lit up like beacons.

"Really?!"

"Oooooh will you play with us, too?"

"Yes, play with us, Jack~"

"Really. And sure, I'll play with you. But not for too long; I'll need to get moving south soon," Jack nodded.

"Okay!" all three chimed, and with a mere wave of their hands the flood water lifted up in a swirling tunnel and began travelling back to the river bed it had come from.

Jack breathed a sigh of relief as he watched them direct it away.

"Are you coming, Jack Frost?" the green haired one asked, looking back at him.

"I'll be there in a moment!"

...

...

"I don't know how you did it, but thank you!" May cried as soon as she spotted him, throwing her arms around him in a rather unexpected embrace.

"Um, you're welcome," Jack replied, hesitating only a moment before returning the hug.

May quickly realised what she was doing and released him, clearing her throat awkwardly.

"So this is your garden?" Jack asked, sparing her the embarrassment.

"Oh, yes," she smiled, looking back at the small cottage so buried in flowers and crawling plants that it was almost impossible to see. But while it was chaos, it wasn't a cluttered chaos. Each and every flower had been positioned exactly and deliberately and it was truly the most colourful place Jack had ever seen.

"It's incredible," he said truthfully, overcome by awe. Being a winter spirit meant he didn't get a lot of time to admire the beauty of spring, but here it was encompassed perfectly. And May lived there. "It suits you."

"Thank you," she breathed. "So… how did you stop it?"

Jack hesitated. He knew how strongly May of all people felt about work and schedules and things like that, and he knew she wouldn't be happy when she found out. His one saving grace was that the river was a reasonable distance from where anyone lived so Bunny would have no real reason to be snippy (he would be anyway, though).

"I… promised to give the snow back."

"You did what?"

"The snow…" he didn't like the look on her face. "If you just leave it be, it'll melt naturally by tomorrow morning! Besides, it's a small price to pay to keep your garden above water, right?"

"I suppose you're right," she sighed.

"Good, now come on," he grabbed her hand and started dragging her towards the river, ignoring her confused protests.

...

...

"I'm back!" Jack called as he and May touched down on the riverbank.

The nymphs appeared almost instantly to greet him but their joyous expressions faded when they caught sight of his 'plus one'.

"What is she-"

"-doing here?" they hissed.

"She's here to apologise, aren't you May?" Jack smirked. May looked horrified at the thought. "And then you ladies are going to apologise for trying to drown her." The nymphs' expressions matched May's. "And then we're going to have some fun, okay?"

It took no less than four 'fun flakes' to get them all to comply, but as soon as the flakes hit them they were beaming and laughing like a bunch of little kids. May didn't even seem to mind she was standing ankle deep in snow or that her hair was dotted in snowflakes. Jack could happily say it was the most fun afternoon he'd had since spring had started and he had no doubt that the others would agree.

Guest Review Responses:

Cag: I'm glad you're liking it! Haha yesh, he got the watch mastered (I'm pretty sure it came with instructions, though XD)