The glowing numbers on Jamie's alarm clock indicated that it was past midnight, but he did not really feel tired. He lay in his bed, lazily watching big snowflakes fall outside. With the moonlight reflecting on the freshly fallen snow, it looked a lot brighter outside than it should be.

Jamie loved the snow. Part of him wanted to get out of bed and go sit on the window, watching it fall like he had so many times before. If he was younger, he would likely have begged his mother to let him go outside and play, even in the late hour. He smiled a little, remembering his mother's exasperated look whenever he had asked her that on a weekday. She would always say that he had school in the morning and the snow would still be there when he woke up. Sometimes, he snuck out to play anyway. Usually at the insistence of a certain white-haired Guardian.

He was too old to be sneaking out to play in the snow, now. Or so he always told himself. And he should likely try to be responsible and sleep. He did have school tomorrow. He turned his back to the window and closed his eyes, waiting for sleep to come.

It was only a moment later that something cold and wet connected with his neck. He let out a little shriek at the sudden sensation of snow on his skin, turning around to glare at the now-open window.

"It's late, Jack. I'm trying to sleep."

Jack smiled innocently at him from the window. Jamie could not really be mad at him.

"But you're not sleeping yet."

Jamie picked up what he could of the half-melted snow and threw it back at Jack. It did not get very far, but it certainly made the young Guardian laugh. Jamie gave a helpless little smile.

"What do you want?"

Jack spread his arms with a large smile.

"It's snowing outside."

"I know that."

The winter spirit jumped lightly from the window to the bed, kneeling next to him and tugging on his arm.

"Come on! It's the last snow of the season. It's already spring. You don't want to let it all go to waste, do you?"

"The snow is still going to be there in the morning, Jack. I got school tomorrow."

Jack gave him such a crestfallen look that Jamie felt bad. He glared at the Guardian, knowing he was probably doing that on purpose to get him to agree to go outside with him. Jack's look turned sulky.

"Now you sound like your mom."

There was a hint of sadness underneath Jack's exaggerated expressions and Jamie wondered if anything had happened to make him want to make some snow fall this late in spring so he could come bother him into playing outside with him. Maybe he got into an argument with Bunny again. They could say things they would regret later when that happened. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Alright, alright. I'll come. But not for long."

A bright, child-like smile split Jack's face and Jamie felt himself smile back. As hard as it was to leave the warmth of his bed, he was actually looking forward to going outside while the snow was fresh and still gently falling. He let the Guardian tug him out of his bed and walked to the door. He was not going outside barefooted and wearing only his pajama in the snow. The last time he had done that, he had been quite sick after.

He winced when the floor creaked as he walked by his mother's door. He froze in place, hoping she wouldn't wake up.

"Jamie is that you?" she asked sleepily. "Are you sneaking out to see your girlfriend again?"

"N-no, mom. I'm just going outside for a moment. I... just want to see the snow."

"Alright, but don't be out too late. You have school tomorrow."

Jamie sighed. At least his mother didn't mind as much when he went outside late anymore, but her suspicions could be... embarrassing. Jack was looking at him with a startled smile and a raised eyebrow, his eyes sparkling.

"You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend."

Jamie glared and pointed down the stairs. He didn't want his mother to think he was talking to himself, too. He had to be careful with that now. He was not a child anymore and these things were just not shrugged off.

Jack flew down the stairs and waited for him there, almost jumping up and down with impatience. Jamie took the time to grab his coat and pull on his boots before walking out the back door.

"So? That girlfriend?"

"There is no girlfriend."

"So who was your mom talking about?

"You."

The look on Jack's face as he gaped at him was quite worth it. Jamie raised his hand to his mouth to stifle a laugh. The poor Guardian looked completely at a loss of how to react to that.

"B-but... I-I'm not... your girlfriend," he stammered, as if he actually thought Jamie needed to be informed of that.

"I know that. But you keep dragging me outside at odd hours and I can't exactly tell her who I'm spending my time with. So she thinks I'm seeing a girl in secret."

"Oh."

Jamie had expected Jack to find the situation hilarious, but the spirit of winter looked surprisingly guilty. He shuffled in place a little, looking down at his feet.

"I hope it's not causing too much trouble."

"She wants me to introduce my girlfriend to her. She's getting suspicious the longer I refuse. Last month ago she told me that it's alright if I'm different and that she'll love me anyway. I had to explain to her that I'm not gay."

"I'm sorry..."

An awkward silence stretched between them. Jamie felt sorry he had said anything. Maybe he should just have let the Guardian think he really had a girlfriend. But then he would want to see her, too. And he didn't like lying to Jack. He had not expected the Guardian to take this so seriously.

"Look, it's ok. It's not a big deal. I thought you dragged me out of bed to have fun?"

Jack looked up again and plastered a smile on his face. Jamie knew him enough to know it wasn't entirely real. Before he could say anything, however, the white-haired teen grabbed him by the arm again and dragged him in the courtyard.

"Let's build a snowman. That way, she'll know you really stayed here."

Jamie had not built a snowman in a long time and he had to admit it turned out more fun than he had remembered. It wasn't long before they were having fun for real instead of just trying to convince themselves that they were.

Laughing, Jack started to shape their ordinary looking snowman to make it look like Bunny, with ridiculously exaggerated features. Jamie laughed harder than he had in a long time as he tried to imagine how the Easter Bunny would react to the snow caricature. He would not be happy. Jamie ran back inside to get a carrot, placing it in the snowbunny's fist, making Jack laugh even harder.

He must have made enough noise to wake up his mother again, for she knocked on the window and gestured at him to go back to bed now. He gave her a sheepish smile before heading back in. He turned back to Jack before entering, waving at the Guardian.

"I guess you'll be leaving the area for a while, right?"

"Yeah, until fall. You guys got enough snow for now."

"See you this fall, then!"

Jack's smiled faltered. Something was obviously bothering the Guardian. Jamie bit his lip for a moment before deciding to simply ask.

"What happened?"

Jack looked like he wanted nothing more than to fly away and avoid the question. He bit his lip, shuffled around and played with his staff uncomfortably.

"I saw Cupcake."

That worried Jaime greatly. Last time he saw Cupcake, she had looked better than she had in a long time. High school had been hard on the big girl and she had been getting increasingly depressed. But her parents had her see a therapist and she was actually smiling when he last saw her. Like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"What about Cupcake? Did something happen to her? I thought she was doing better..."

"She is. She looks a lot happier. More confident. And that's great."

"Then what—Oh. She doesn't believe in you anymore."

It wasn't really a question, but Jack shook his head to confirm that he had guessed right. Jamie's heart sank. She had been the last one of his friends to still believe in the Guardians. They were seventeen years old, now, and the others had long since written off that night so long ago as a dream. Only Cupcake, the big girl who loved unicorns, had hanged on to the memories. And Jamie knew it had just contributed to her isolation.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's normal. Kids grow up. They need to. It was only hurting her."

Jamie didn't have anything to answer to that, so he stayed silent. Jack bit his lip again before finally looking him in the eye. He needed to tilt his head back to do that. Jamie remembered how ridiculously proud he had been when he first realized that he was now taller than Jack.

"I'll see you again in fall, Jamie. But maybe it would be better if you didn't see me."

Jamie's eyes widened. He tried to grab Jack's sleeve before the white-haired teen flew away, but his fingers closed on air as the wind picked up the Guardian. Jack floated above the snow Bunny for a moment, looking down at him with a sad smile.

"Good night, Jamie."


That's my longest one so far. It was originally supposed to be just a light and fluffy scene of Jack dragging Jamie outside to build a snowman, but it seems like I can't write something just light and fluffy anymore. Also, I haven't written anything from Jack's point of view since chapter 13, for some reason. Next one should be from his POV.