You know, contrary to how immature he was, Jack was actually a great date - boyfriend - significant other? It still felt weird to call him anything other than just Jack, but hey, we'd been dating for ten months now. It was weirder to think that we'd spent an amazing Halloween without Sam. Every year since I'd met him, Halloween had always had at least a visit to Salem. But this year it had been a Saturday, and Saturdays were date nights. Our forty-third date.

Jack actually had a great track record so far. We'd had Everest, yeah and a good number of nights in, but Jack had surprised me with how thoughtful most of his choices were. Like, he'd taken me to this cave in Mexico with crystals as big as Del - we had to go so far underground that I was overheating. Like it was hard to breathe. But man, had it been worth it. And we'd snuck into a few plays and musicals - all of which were based on stories I already loved before I ever met him. He'd even taken me to the wisteria tunnel in Japan.

Last weekend had been my pick and - having been Halloween - I'd claimed Dia de Los Muertos as my date. I know, not something you'd think of normally, but I was Hispanic and it had been a big thing on that side of my family... and it was a legitimate excuse for me to love Halloween more than anything on earth. And boy had it been something.

Not only could most of the participants able to see us, but I saw people who definitely weren't immortal and certainly weren't alive anymore either. They were milling around and just before sunrise they all funneled their way to somewhere neither Jack nor I could see... but no one was worried or even wary. They all were happy like they knew exactly what was waiting for them. It gave me some hope that whatever limbo I knew wasn't the end. Jack had been floored by the spirits. Most of the time even us immortals couldn't see ghosts - except for Mors and co. There were very specific times a year when they were visible. Neither of us had ever gone anywhere on those days with a significant number of them. It was something.

But now it was Jack's turn again. I was ready for something new and breathtaking - as per usual with him nowadays. I'd always thought there wasn't much left for me to see, but this year had proven me dead wrong. I was rearing to go but I was under orders to wait for him to come get me. Something about waiting for the right time to leave. Which had me really antsy.

I'd been working on some Christmas presents for this year but after six hours of work I was bored and my hands were sort of cramping up. So I stalked up the stairs to the library and searched for a book... which was absent. "Star boy." I sighed and leaned my head against the shelf in frustration. Aldebaran had been using my library like it was open to the public, borrowing books without telling me and dropping them back off when he was done. He'd told me that he was sharing them with Mr. Qwerty which lessened my irritation a little but not by much. "Leave a note next time..."

I moved around the room eyeing the spines on my crowded shelves. I might have to purge sometime soon. In reality, I had room for hundreds more, but I sort of liked the way it looked with spaces left over, the books leaning against each other for support. Still, there wasn't a single shelf without at least three books by now.

I got to the shelf that held my most treasured books, the ones I'd read upwards of a hundred times each, possibly upwards of a thousand. My eyes skimmed the spines, taking in the peeling paper and frayed fabric. It was the distress on them that proved to me just how much I loved them, as stories. I don't baby the things I own, I never have. When they survive in spite of that fact, they have even more worth than when I first got them. So my books with the peeling spines are worth their weight in gold to me... actually, they're worth more than that. It's times like these that Sel and I are one and the same.

I read through titles, waiting for one to shout at me above the others. When my eyes settled on Swan Sister a small and easily most beat up of the books on this shelf, a nostalgic smile drifted across my face. I pulled it out and flipped it open to the first page, sinking into one of the armchairs as I started reading. This was one of the books that I truly didn't mind coming alive around me... it always had, in a way. So when the blood in Bluebeard's cellar washed across my floor, I wasn't phased. When a little golden hamster scurried around me, I smiled. And when the chords of the harp rang out, I hummed along.

A few hours later, when I let the book close again, I sat staring at the cover for a minute. The quote in the corner caught my eye and my smile grew a little as a laugh escaped me. 'The sort of book young people who like to dream will want to read... over and over again.' I'm sure that the editors didn't know how accurate that quote would prove to be. I got up and slid the book back into it's place on the shelf, stretching a little as I turned around.

Jack smiled at me from the doorway where he was leaning. I paused mid-stretch and blinked a little in surprise. "How long have you been here?"

He shrugged as he pushed himself off of the doorway and took a few steps into the room. "Since Rapunzel."

"You mean, 'The Girl in the Attic'?" He nodded. "Why didn't you say anything to let me know you were here? I would have stopped reading if I knew you were ready to go."

He smirked at me as he came over and kissed me. I so wasn't used to that. The first time he'd done that was about a month after the meeting this year. We'd gone to this glow worm tunnel in New Zealand - which was like stargazing in the middle of the day. While we were sitting there, listening to the guide tell the tourists about the history of the area and blah, blah, blah, he nudged my shoulder and when I looked over to ask what was up he leaned in and planted one on me. I'd been super surprised, but it wasn't bad. Simple. At least he hadn't tried to stick his tongue down my throat like Dan.

"But that's your favorite book. And I like being able to sneak up on you." He reached down and took my hand. "I wish you could see your face when you read."

I scrunched my eyebrows. "Why?"

He shrugged. "You just... look more alive, is all."

"More so than usual?" My comment brought a laugh from both of us. "So... where are we going?"

He smirked at me again. "Nice try."

"Damn, I was hoping to catch you off guard." I shrugged. "Well, if you're not gonna tell me, then can we get going so I can find out? The anticipation has been driving me crazy."

"Oh, I know it is." He smirked, reaching into the pocket of his hoodie and pulled out a length of fabric. Laughing he held it up to reveal that it was a blindfold. "Which is part of why I'm making you wear this until we get there."

I jutted my lower jaw out with my lips pressed together. I tried not to whine, but it came out that way regardless. "Not again."

"Please?" I stared at him, letting my previous answer speak for itself. "I'm not taking you unless you put this on."

I growled a little. "Fine, but this better be worth it."

He chuckled as he wrapped it around my head, obscuring my vision. "Trust me, it is." He tugged on the fabric and I assumed he was tying a knot. "There." He then took my hand again. "Now we can go."

He lead me up the stairs to my roof and the winds swirled around us. As many times as I'd flown - both on my own and by the winds' power -, I'd always been able to see where I was going. But now, my eyes were covered. I didn't like it. Even though I knew I could catch myself if the winds let me fall, even though I knew that Jack was holding my hand and that he'd never let me fall, even though I knew that the winds had never let me fall before, and even though this was the umpteenth time he'd done this to me... not being able to see anything made the whole trip less than enjoyable on my part. My only indication as to where we were going was the smell of the ocean far below us. So I knew we were at least heading west over the Pacific since we hadn't been flying long enough to be over the Atlantic already.

After a few hours of flying blind, the winds finally set us down someplace very leafy. Even though my blindfold was still in place, I could feel the leaves all around me. I could also hear the wind rushing through what sounded like a canyon. But the only canyons I could think of weren't this dense with plant life. I was so ready to take the blindfold off. "Can I look now?"

I heard the rustle of more leaves from somewhere in front of me. "Not yet." After the leaves had stopped making as much noise, Jack gently pushed me forward and I sensed that there weren't any plants in front of me anymore. Don't ask me how it's just that spacial awareness thing that most people have... usually. "Okay, now."

I reached up and ripped the fabric off of my face so fast I may have pulled out a few hairs along with it. But you know what, I really didn't care. I was just happy to have the thing off of me. I'm as game for a surprise as the next person, but I like my sense of sight, thank you. And I was even more thankful for it then because I could see where Jack had taken me. My jaw was hanging wide and my eyes were saucers as I took in the sight before me.

We were standing on a cliff that was overgrown with bright green plants and trees. The ground, a good thousand feet below us, was obscured by fog or mist. However, it wasn't the mountain I was standing on that had my attention. It was the hundreds of other mountains. All around us, as far as I could see, were giant - natural - pillars of stone and greenery. I felt like I was staring at the floating mountains from Avatar, but these giant formations were attached to the ground. I let out a breath that I hadn't realized I'd been holding. "Oh my god..."

"Welcome to Zhangjiajie." I tore my eyes away from the view in front of me to shoot a glance at Jack. He was smiling at my reaction, which wasn't unexpected.

My eyes went straight back to the mountainous pillars that surrounded us. "It's amazing." While part of me wanted to move forward to get a better view, the ground fell away less than a foot in front of me, and so another part wanted to stay where I was and take in as much as possible before taking a step. My gaze drifted lazily around the view. How had I never been here before? How had I not known a place this incredible existed? Above all, how was I ever going to take it all in?

Jack reached out and set his hand on my arm. I turned to look at him again and found a concerned expression. "Are you okay? You're really quiet - which is weird for you."

I shot him a smile. "Yeah, I'm okay." I glanced back at the cliffs. "Better than okay actually." I shrugged. "I'm great. This is great." I looked back at him. "You're great."

Jack took my hand once more. I turned to see the smirk he flashed at me. He took a step forward until his toes were hanging over the edge. He then gestured out at the open air between us and the nearest pillar. "Shall we?"

"We shall." I shot back as I leaped out into the air with him. For once he didn't cite me for jumping off a cliff. For once I didn't mind that I was trying to force myself to fall in love with my best friend, even though I knew deep down that it wouldn't happen.

As Jack and I pin-wheeled around each other and spiraled in and out of the mountains in Zhangjiajie, I just let myself forget about everything. It was incredible. Even if at the end of this year, Jack was still only my friend in my eyes. Even if I found real love someday and I was happy every second of every day. This would still be one of the best dates of my life. And if I knew Jack - and I did - he would lord it over me for the rest of eternity. And you know what? I was okay with that.

Well, until a blast of wind slammed us against one of the mountains and held us there. I tried to shout at the winds what they were doing, but my words were ripped away before I could hear them. It didn't matter what I said, though because above the air rushing past I could hear their unease. I'd say they were screaming but it wasn't that bad. I caught Jack's eye, trying to see if he noticed how wired the winds were. His eyes were wide and I could see that he knew damn well that he'd messed up. What did we do?

It didn't take long for part of my questions to be answered. An immortal rose on the wind to hover in front of us. I instantly knew he was an immortal because he definitely wasn't human... or at least if he used to be, he wasn't anymore. He was huge, almost eight feet tall and his skin was dark blue - like a storm cloud. Oh, and he had a stag's head complete with three-foot horns. And he was pissed.

His arms were crossed and he looked like he was standing on the air. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jack swallow around his discomfort before steeling his gaze. "Frost." The immortal before us growled his words as if he were a bear and not a deer. "I should have guessed." His eyes narrowed before flicking to me for half a second. "No other immortal is dim enough to trespass inside my territory."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to -" He snapped his gaze back to Jack, killing the rest of his sentence before it left his throat. Jack swallowed again. "I told the winds to let you know we'd be here."

For a moment he didn't answer, simply looking between the two of us, searching for something. "Did you really believe that would save you my wrath?" He wasn't looking at Jack when he said it. He was looking at me like he was sniffing out fear - the same way the fearlings did. I held his gaze.

"Fujin." My eyes widened as I shot a glance at Jack. Fujin? The immortal glared at him. "Leave her out of this, she didn't know we were gonna be here." He looked at me out of the corner of his eye for a millisecond. "Whatever punishment you want to give, give it to me." He looked the giant in the eyes.

I glanced back at him as well, eyeing him a little closer. I wracked my brain for this name I recognized and when I realized it my only thought was 'oh, crap'. Fujin and Raijin were Japanese oni who controlled the wind and thunder... storm gods. No wonder the winds are terrified. He was probably one of the few immortals who could control the wind - like actually control them. Is he a seasonal Spirit?

After a moment he looked back at me. I think he saw that I knew who he was because he unfolded his arms and drifted closer to me. Jack tried to get his attention again, but it was in vain. "Who are you that the Winter Spirit protects so vehemently."

I just eyed him for a moment before I responded. Somehow, I figured saying 'I'm Jack Frost's girlfriend' wasn't gonna come across very well. "Story Tale. And I'll wager a guess that you're the Spirit of Autumn." His eyebrows - well, as close as the dear visage had - went up. Would you look at that, I guess I guessed right. Not the time IV, not the time.

He glanced at Jack who was so stiff I wouldn't be surprised if he turned into the same stone we were backed up against. "She's smarter than you are, tenderfoot." His nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply. "Even if she is just a draft." My eyebrows scrunched together. What the hell did draft mean? Did I smell or something?

"Look, we'll get lost, just do whatever you need to feel vindicated and we'll go." Jack shot a look at me.

"But do you think you could put us down first?" I'd asked Fujin. Part of me hoped that he was civil enough to use common courtesy, but I also knew that he obviously didn't like intruders and/or Jack. However, once I spoke, Jack had a look of horror on his face - which was enough to let me know that Fujin wasn't the type to be so kind on a regular basis... Well, fuck. His eyes narrowed. "My wings are getting shredded, which means that some books somewhere close are being ruined. It could cost me believers even if they don't realize it."

Even though his eyes were still narrow, the tension released. After a moment the winds stopped their pressure on me and I released my wings about half a second before the pressure resumed. "I spared your wings to adhere to our laws." Fujin held my gaze, almost daring me to misinterpret his kindness. "The two of you are not so lucky."

"Hey! I told you, she doesn't have anything to do with this! It's my fault she's even here!" Fujin stared at Jack, drifting slightly closer to me. "Let her go, give me double the punishment." Fujin's nostrils flared again while Jack straightened up.

After a moment his eyebrows raised again. "You've grown a spine since the last time I saw you." He cocked his head, almost impaling me and making Jack jump. "Is that because your precious believer has died?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jack wince painfully. "How dare you!" My outburst drew Fujin's gaze. There was a vague surprise on his face by my response, but overall he looked bored.

"Jack is one of the Seasons. He does not need believers to survive. None of us do. They are distractions. A Season's first priority is to keep nature in balance. While he runs off frivolously chasing mortals, Spring and I must pick up the slack." He glared at Jack. "Honestly, when Mother chose you I'd expected more. I thought for certain that after training you myself you'd show some semblance of responsibility for the world you inhabit."

"I have other things to worry about than where to make it snow next! I'm a Guardian in case you haven't heard!" He rolled his shoulders, almost breaking free. "Now let me the hell go."

Fujin scoffed. "Yes, I had heard. It is ridiculous if you ask me. Of all the Seasons to bear double the duty, they chose you, the most irresponsible and childish of the bunch."

"Better Jack than Pele!" He shot me a look, raising his eyebrows as much as possible again. "Or you for that matter. Bunny's enough, the Guardians don't need another high and mighty asshole." Well, Bunny wasn't one anymore, but my point still stood. I was tired of tiptoeing around this big scary monster. If I could befriend the Nightmare King, then this guy was nothing. "I'm not gonna just sit here while you keep insulting him."

I called some pages to plaster across his face like I'd done to Del all those years ago which stunned him long enough to get the winds to drop Jack and me. We plummeted through the sky, skidding against the cliff face on our way down. I tried to push myself far enough off to get my wings behind me, catching myself enough to slow down before I hit bottom. I rolled as I hit the ground, with Jack landing on top of me. It was a good thing we weren't all the way at the top when we fell or we'd have been injured badly. We were only about two hundred feet up, thankfully.

"You okay?" I was trying to catch my breath, but I was mostly okay. Jack looked mostly fine as well, but you never knew.

"Yeah." He jumped up, stumbling slightly before pulling me up after him. He shot a glance upwards. "We should go - now." He tugged me after him, starting to run through the canyons. We ducked into one of the caves, running deep into it before he looked back over his shoulder to make sure Fujin wasn't following us. We were both breathing heavily when he gave me a once over. "Are you alright? You're not hurt?"

I shook my head, watching over his shoulder. "No, I'm fine. What the hell was all that about back there?"

He took a deep breath and sighed. "This is Fujin's territory. He's the oldest Season and he's really antisocial. He doesn't interact with any other immortals except for Mother Nature and me and Pele when he needs to - speaking of, how the hell do you know who she is?"

"I saw her at Legends once. And my grandma used to go to Hawaii every summer, I was well versed in their mythology from a young age." The wind whipped past the entrance pf the cave and we scurried deeper. "Once was enough to know exactly what kind of a person she is."

Jack's eyes widened in agreement. "Yeah. Anyway, I thought that if I gave him a warning that I was going to be passing through that he might let it slide - I'm an idiot for thinking that would work."

I grabbed at his hand, garnishing a surprised look from him. "You're not an idiot."

He gave me a grateful smile a moment before he leaden in to give me a kiss. This time I didn't blink in surprise like I had earlier. I guess the warning smile was enough of a heads up for my brain to gauge what was going on. "Thanks, but I really am. I know Fujin well enough to know that he'd be pissy."

"Didn't he say something about training you?"

Jack grimaced. "Yeah. He taught the rest of us - the Seasons how to correctly use our powers. Most specifically how to balance nature the right way. How to use the winds to their best advantage, how to know how long we could wait before springing a disaster upon mortals, all of that. We... didn't exactly get along. Eventually, Gaia stepped in and gave me some pointers when I started ignoring everything he'd told me."

"Fundamental differences?" I offered the assumption with a raised eyebrow.

The dry chuckle that he gave in return was enough to let me know that even if Fujin did catch us that we wouldn't be in serious trouble - despite how Jack had reacted earlier. "You could say that." He ran his thumb across the back of my hand, studying it for a second. "You heard the way he talks about believers." His smile disappeared into a grimace. "He hated how I used to play with kids who never saw me, telling me it was a waste of my 'valuable time' as a Season." I barely heard his voice crack when he said never... but it was there. "He's right that the four of us don't need them to survive. We're part of nature and nature doesn't need to be believed in but..." He looked up at me. "I really wanted them to see me... you know? And he didn't get it."

He sighed. "The last straw for him was when Manny made me a Guardian... and Jamie became my first believer. I dropped in to brag after it happened - I wanted to show off and prove that I wasn't the loser he always thought I was... I thought he might actually show me a little respect for once." He dropped his eyes. "He was disgusted by how proud I was of Jamie. Flabbergasted by the fact that I was chosen to be a Guardian. He refused to look at me - told me to never trespass on his territory again or I'd 'incur his wrath'." When he looked up again there was a bittersweet smile on his face. "I haven't come near this place since. But I knew you'd never been here either, so it was worth it to risk bumping into him." His smile turned cocky like usual. "So whaddya say we blow this joint?"

"Can we even get out of here with him controlling the winds?" I gestured toward the cave entrance.

He smirked at me. "What do you take me for? I'm the spirit of Winter, I can order them around if I want to - I'm usually nicer than Fujun though." He grabbed my hand and ran us over to a crack in the ceiling that we could just barely see the sky through. "Ready?" He flashed me a smile again while I nodded.

A moment later he launched off, pulling me behind him. The winds instantly surrounded us, screaming upwards. They sped us away from the cave as fast as they could. A few times I caught a whisper or two about 'keeping this a secret from Fujin' and I couldn't help the smile on my face. In no time we'd cleared the other side of the Himalayas, the mountains casting shadows that looked more like teeth across the ground below at the sun set behind them. The winds finally slowed down to their normal cruising speed and we caught our breath.

Jack shot me a look for a second his expression serious. "I'm sorry our date got ruined."

"It wasn't your fault." I glanced behind us, making sure that Fujin wasn't following us. "At least I've met all the seasonal spirits now, right?"

"You've met Pele?" His eyebrow raised with a disbelief so thick I could almost smell it.

"Everyone shows up at Legends eventually." I tactfully ignored the fact that I'd almost certainly incurred her wrath were she to ever see me again. In her eyes it was probably along the lines of 'the friend of my enemy is my enemy' or something like that. "And she makes a scene."

"You didn't get yourself put on her list did you?" He side-eyed me, eyebrow still raised.

"Not as far as I know." Don't you dare notice my lie, Jack Frost. "She freaked Gaia out though... and then Sunny beat her ass out back. It was pretty entertaining if I'm being honest. You know, when I wasn't dodging fireballs." I snickered at the memory. Not necessarily a humorless laugh, but close.

"Watch out for her, please. If you thought Fujin was bad, Pele is almost literal hellfire. Fujin's just an ass." I noticed him roll his eyes out of the corner of mine.

"Alright." As we travelled farther away from the immortal who now had a vendetta against us, I remembered something from our conversation that I'd been curious about - before we had to make our exit. "Hey, what did he mean when he called me a draft?" Jack glanced at me. "Do I smell or something?" Now, I'll be the first to admit that I don't clean myself every day. It is healthier to give your body a few days between washes than to wash constantly. But I'll also admit that I go just a tad longer than most other people between baths or showers. Not that most immortals cleaned themselves on the same sort of basis as mortals did. We didn't sweat as much and didn't have as many bodily functions that needed upkeep. We mostly only cleaned up if we got super dirty or really felt like we needed a shower.

Jack surprised me by chuckling. Well, I mean - he's Jack - laughing isn't out of the ordinary, but boy I just asked you if I smell and you laugh at me? "No, you don't smell bad. That's what he calls young immortals. If you're less than a few centuries old, then you're a child in his eyes."

"How old is he?"

"Five digits at least. I don't know exactly but that's my best guess. I know Gaia is two thousand something, and Pele is about six thousand if the one time she bragged about her seniority wasn't an exaggeration." He shot me a glance. "Mother Nature takes her damn sweet time in picking seasonal spirits."

"At least she's done now."

"Not necessarily." He shrugged, tucking his hands into his pockets. "There are a lot of other immortals tied to the seasons and nature in general. Ones with specific roles mandated by Mother Nature specifically don't need believers to survive. A lot of them have legends as well, but she's always looking for newborn immortals to take up a job."

"Kind of like underlings for the Seasons?"

"Eh, sort of. It depends on if they need to check in with us or not." He shrugged again, though this time it was less from casual uncertainty and more from being uncomfortable. "I usually just let the winds relay things between me and any of the ones that need to talk to me. Most of the others have a more hands-on approach." He shot me a crooked smirk.

"Are there any of them that you get along with?" It'd be nice if Jack could have some more friends... or at least immortals that he got along with. I had my whole crowd at Legends, but Jack didn't get out much... neither did Sam for that matter.

"I wouldn't say 'get along with', per se." He actually did air quotes, making me snicker. "But there's a handful that I actually like talking to when we go over their jobs each year." At my questioning look, he elaborated. "Bely - he's in charge of the first snow in a lot of the world. I still take over where I want to do it each year - he's not so much of an ass that he doesn't correlate with me each year." He hesitated for a minute or two and I sort of thought he was done talking, but no...

"Glacier is the other one I talk to. She's in charge of icing over small bodies of water at the beginning of winter..." I saw his eyes darken for a moment. Before I could move on it, he snapped back to normal. "I uh... gave her a piece of my mind once I found out about her. She's been around for longer than me so she was obviously slacking off for a while. I kind of get on her ass a lot, but I'll be damned if I let her off the hook for endangering people." He grimaced apologetically. "She's not a bad person, she's just getting tired of doing this every year. She's one of the north Natives, Eskimos - a lot more people used to believe in her, now there's like no one that even knows her name. She's pissed that she lost her believers - which I can't blame her for, but still... Actually, I haven't heard from her yet this year, now that I think about it."

He got a distant look on his face before whispering something to the winds that I didn't catch. A moment later he got his answer and he was not happy. "What do you mean 'you can't find her'?" They responded, but it was too garbled for me to actually hear - though I assumed it was a reiteration of their original statement. "She didn't just disappear -" He cut off mid-sentence, eyes growing wide in horror. "No, check again - look everywhere. Make sure she's not just being stubborn and hiding."

"Jack?" I knew he didn't want to believe it, but it was fairly obvious that she was the newest name to add to the list of missing immortals. This is so not good.