*waves* Hey, guys! Sorry I didn't manage to get this one out yesterday despite actually getting a couple reviews really quickly. (Thank you, by the way. I really appreciate that.) I overestimated my stamina and was nearly dead with exhaustion about halfway through this chapter, so I had to put it off until today. Still ended up surprisingly short for my standards. *sighs* Oh well, at least I released it quickly, so it's still rapid posting to sort of make up for lost time, haha. I have some ideas for the next chapter too, so hopefully that'll get released quickly as well. If I finish it today or tomorrow or whatever, I'll post it right away. Though getting the reviews still helps so that this story doesn't look bad from having too few. XD

On another note, happy Valentine's Day! *hands each reader a Valentine cookie* Whether you have a sweetheart or not, you can still celebrate love. Heck, go ahead and snuggle your kitties. I'm sure they wouldn't mind. ;)

Disclaimer: Still don't own the lovable winter sprite or anything else in that movie. Though really, even if I did own him, he'd probably give me so much trouble that I'd wish I didn't. *shakes head after imagining some of the things Jack might do* Nope, he's better off wild and free and not focusing all his pranks on a single person, haha.

It was stupid to wait in the car. Jack knew that. Susan wasn't coming back outside. And even if she was, it wasn't very smart of him to wait in a place that was notorious for overheating. Granted, it was still winter, so the car probably wouldn't heat up too much, but anyone knew that the inside of a car was still going to be warmer than the air outside. Staying put made no sense whatsoever.

Especially when Jamie and Sophie walked onto the driveway after returning home from school. It didn't take long for Jamie to spot Jack's peculiar hiding place, making Jack facepalm at his own stupidity. He hadn't seriously expected that he could escape Jamie's notice, had he? Surely he wasn't that stupid. No, actually he hadn't even thought about what Jamie would say. He'd forgotten that Jamie was even coming home. Oh gosh, he had it bad.

Jamie wasted no time in running up to the passenger side window and laughing at the sight of Jack hiding out in the family car. "What are you doing in there, Jack?"

Jack decided it would be most prudent to just do what he did best: lie. Or he at least hoped it was what he did best. He'd never actually gotten much feedback on his lying skills. "Oh this?" said Jack. "I just felt like... you know, going for a drive?" He chuckled awkwardly in what he hoped was a convincing way, though who had ever been convinced by an awkward chuckle, he had no idea.

Jamie, of course, was not fooled by the chuckle, though he did let out some laughter of his own. "Well, you're on the wrong side if you wanted to go for a drive, Jack."

Jack suddenly made a show of looking toward the dashboard in front of him and exclaiming in surprise at the revelation that there was indeed no steering wheel in front of him, and so he promptly hopped over to the driver's seat in an attempt to rectify the error. Jamie then hopped in on the passenger side. He expected Sophie to try and join them too at this rate, but she decided to abandon the dumb boys to their own stupid games while she went inside to look for a snack. So the idiots were left to their own devices. Great.

"So, do you even know how to drive, Jack?"

"Huh?" Jack jerked up and looked at Jamie, kind of startled that he had actually thought to question him on that. Great. Now he was going to have to think of a response. "Well, um..." He licked his lips. "Well, I figured it was a great time to learn, you know?"

At this, Jamie only started laughing again and teasing Jack some more about how you couldn't expect to go driving if you didn't even know how to drive in the first place. So now Jack looked really stupid. Or at least he felt it. He supposed it was just as well though. It was better that Jamie be distracted by a stupid excuse like this than that he get all curious about what was going on with him. Jamie thinking Jack was just a dummy about cars was so much easier than explaining what his heart was doing at the moment.

After Jamie calmed down, he piped back up with, "So, did you actually get to talk to the other Guardians yesterday about what was bothering you?"

Great. He'd remembered. Just his luck.

Jack nodded. "Of course I did."

Jamie waited patiently for something, and when he didn't receive what he wanted fast enough, he gestured with his hand for Jack to continue as he said, "Aaaaaaaaand...?"

Jack scoffed at this. Who did Jamie think he was? His mommy? "You make it sound like you're trying to get all the juicy details of my first date."

This only caused Jamie to collapse in a fit of laughter once again. Well, at least one of them was getting amusement out of this situation. Jack could count that as a plus. He was still succeeding at being the Guardian of Fun if he could still make Jamie laugh. So he hadn't lost himself entirely. Yet.

Jamie then recovered from his laughter faster than Jack was prepared to deal with, and the little devil looked up at Jack and said, "so who would you go on a date with if you ever actually went on one?"

"Oh, uh... I, uh..." Jack wrung his hands as he tried and failed to answer the question. He felt the blood flow to his cheeks, something that didn't happen all that often since he was incredibly used to embarrassing himself. He wondered if he was blushing. Oh gosh, he seriously hoped he wasn't actually blushing. Jamie would tease him so hard for this.

Said child then started up his laughter again at seeing Jack's reaction. Apparently he really was blushing. Great. And in front of a twelve-year-old, no less. The twelve-year-old son of the person he was attracted to, in fact. This was beyond his usual level of embarrassment which he often caused for the fun of it. This was mortifying. And Jamie was soaking up all of Jack's humiliation and just having a grand old time of it.

"Jack," said Jamie between fits of giggles, "your face!" He then collapsed onto the back of the chair in laughter as Jack instinctively reached for his face. He didn't know what to say to this kid. Anything he said would probably just make him laugh all the more. Perhaps that might be Jack's usual goal, but for this he just wanted to slip under the radar. It was bad enough that Jamie knew as much as he did already. Maybe it was time to call it quits for the day just to stay safe.

"I, uh... I think I'd better go."

As Jack moved to find the door handle so that he could open the door, Jamie's eyes widened in a comical way before he started laughing again. "Wait, Jack, are you actually in love with someone right now?"

That comment sent Jack's mind into a tailspin, and whatever question he would have asked Jamie soon became too much work to articulate. His eyes darted back and forth as he looked for whatever clues might have tipped Jamie off to this, but finding nothing, said, "What? Who? ...Wh-Where did you get that idea, Jamie?"

The little devil continued laughing even at this. "It's just-your face!" Once again, Jack reached for his face, causing a series of snorts from Jamie. "Oh god, Jack, you've got it bad!"

Jack wanted to come up with a response to negate that conclusion, but every time he had opened his mouth thus far, he had only succeeded at further putting his foot in it. Maybe it was just wiser to keep his mouth shut for now and hope that Jamie grew tired of this soon.

"So who is it, Jack?" Jamie promptly followed his question with smoochy sounds, which only made the question worse. Jack had to get out of here.

"I've got to go."

Jack finally found the door handle and swung open the door, but not before being subjected to a chorus of, "Jack and his sweetheart sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G..." He turned and gave a glare to Jamie, which only seemed to make the boy's laughter even worse. Shaking his head, he took to the air, willing himself to go anywhere but here.

He didn't actually get very far before he heard the distinct sound of wings flapping behind him. He turned and spied Cupid frantically trying to catch up. Jack scoffed and rolled his eyes before pulling himself to a stop in midair. "Great. What on earth do you want?"

Cupid returned the glare before pulling up alongside Jack in midair, flapping his wings to keep himself hovering in place. "Gee, this is the thanks I get for trying to help?"

Jack snorted and crossed his arms? Help? Help who? "Since when have you ever tried to help anyone?"

"Since a certain someone invaded my house while I was away and left me with a drunken wind god on my couch." Cupid sent a meaningful glare Jack's way over that, which made Jack start to crack up at the memory of Boreas all drunk and snoring. "Thanks so much for that, Jack. I just love entertaining a hungover Boreas. And I really love getting lectures from my wife. Thanks so much."

Wow, it seemed like Jack had actually gotten to Cupid. This was a new high he had never thought he could reach, especially while lovesick. He didn't know how much control of his faculties he'd have in the near future, but it seemed like he still had it for now. A smirk spread over his face. "Happy to oblige. Boreas just came to me the other day and asked me where he could go to get drunk and pass out, and I told him that Cupid absolutely loved drunk, passed out wind gods, and that he should totally check it out." Jack then held his hands up in front of him. "No need to thank me."

Cupid snorted and rolled his eyes, clearly not feeling much need to thank Jack regardless, which only amused Jack more. "Whatever," he said. "Anyway, I was just coming to give you a tip or two since you somehow got Psyche on your side and she'll wring my neck if I don't."

Wait, so visiting Psyche when Cupid wasn't home actually helped? Jack certainly hadn't seen that one coming. She had seemed to be the saner of the two though, so maybe he should have guessed that she might knock some sense into Cupid as soon as she saw him again. A sly smile crossed Jack's face. "Can't say no to the little lady, huh? Why, do you have a way to reverse this?"

Cupid then started scratching his head and hemming and hawing over his words as though they were suddenly very difficult to say. After a moment, he seemed to realize that his word choices weren't going to get any better, and so with a resigned sigh, he said, "Yes and no. I mean, I do have arrows that will do the opposite effect, but-"

"-Can you use one on me?!"

Cupid glared at Jack for interrupting him, then cleared his throat and started again. "I said the effect was opposite, not reversed. You did care for the little lady even before I shot you, didn't you?"

Jack scratched the back of his head. "Well, yeah. I mean, I was her imaginary friend when she was a kid, and-"

"-And you wouldn't feel even that if I shot you with one of my lead arrows." Cupid then crossed his arms over his chest. "In fact, you'd be downright repulsed at the sight of her. Is that what you want? To not even be able to stand being anywhere near her?"

Jack's eyes went wide, and he automatically thrust his arms out in front of him to block Cupid from coming anywhere near him as though that would somehow work. "What? NO! That would be even worse! She's the mother of my first believer. I can't just get disgusted every time she enters the room."

Cupid nodded knowingly, then uncrossed his arms. "Then you have no choice but to deal with this. There is no cure."

"But how am I supposed to be able to work like this?" Jack thrust out his hands as if he was pleading. "I feel like I'm going mad!"

"The trick," said Cupid, "is to stop fighting it. Learn to work with it, and you can continue to feel the love you feel without losing your mind to it."

"Heh." Jack clapped a hand over his forehead and shook his head disbelievingly. Surely this wasn't the solution. If it was, he was screwed. He'd already acted pretty crazily thus far, and he was sure he was only going to get worse. "But if I give into it, I'll only get creepier, won't I? I've already been stalking her enough as it is."

Apparently Cupid found this amusing, because he chuckled, but he wisely chose not to comment on that thought any further. Instead, he said, "You have to focus on loving her healthily. It might take some effort on your part since you have no prior experience, but you can learn." He then turned away and muttered, "Heaven knows I had to." Jack had barely perceived those words and wanted to ask Cupid what he meant, but decided against it for the time being, since he didn't want Cupid to stop talking now that he had his attention.

"Okay," said Jack, "focus on healthy love. I got it. But how does one even do that when the other person can't see them?"

At this, Cupid just started laughing uncontrollably. Like, really uncontrollably. Worse than Jamie was doing just a few minutes prior. Jack raised an eyebrow at the crazy love god before him and wondered if he'd broken him somehow. He sure hoped not. He wasn't sure how to fix a broken love god. He didn't know how to fix much of anything he broke, honestly.

"You haven't read my and Psyche's story, have you?"

Jack blinked. He wasn't really sure what to say to that, but he supposed he had to say something. "You know, Psyche told me that I should read that story too. But why?"

Cupid shook his head in amusement, still laughing at the predicament. "Because if you had actually read the story, you would have seen that invisibility doesn't really matter all that much when it comes to love."

Another raised eyebrow. "It doesn't?"

Cupid shook his head. "Nope." Then after giving Jack a moment to ponder that tidbit, he added another one. "And besides, love and belief are two very similar forces. If you get her to love you enough, she'll see you regardless of whether she believes in you."

Jack felt like he'd been punched in the gut. Or maybe someone had stabbed him somewhere, because all the blood had run out of his head and he suddenly felt really dizzy. He staggered in the air and had to catch himself. Had Cupid really said what he thought he'd said? Could he really get Susan to see him?

"B-But," said Jack, "how can I get Susan to love me if she can't see me?"

Cupid then just waved off Jack's concern as though it were a non-issue. "She already loves you, dude. I've been watching you two to see how you manage with you being a Guardian and all. You just need to turn up the charm a bit so that you can get her to love you a little bit more."

Having said what he'd come to say, Cupid then flew away, but while he was still within earshot, he turned back and said, "Good luck!" Then he flew out of sight.

Meanwhile, Jack just hovered there in the air for several long moments as he tried to decide what to do. According to Cupid, he needed to: one, stop fighting against the magic to avoid going insane, two, focus on a healthier approach to this relationship even though he had no prior experience as such, and three, turn up the charm so that she might be able to finally see him. Jack rubbed at his forehead and grimaced. All this stuff was making his head hurt.

He knew that he definitely had some questions that needed answers, and he knew where some of those answers could possibly be found. He turned and set a course for the north pole, since North's library was as good a place to look first as any.

First things first, he needed to find that story.

Again, sorry that was short. I had a hard time writing the scene between Jack and Cupid for some reason, so I just felt like stopping after that scene was done. That scene needed to happen, but yeah. Some scenes flow, some don't, eh heh. I am looking forward to an upcoming scene between Jack and Bunny though. We'll see if that one flows or not when I get there, haha.

Anyway, let me know what you think, and I'll see you all soon!