This was written for midnightzstorm, because she made me a bazillion beautiful AD:JL livejournal icons. This takes place before Ski Trip because Jake and Rose don't know each other's secret identities yet. I think AmDragxHuntsgirl is my new obsession. As I was telling midy, it's like candy battered in wine then deep fried and dusted with chocolate. Their witty banter is soooo much fun to write, and I almost kinda wish they didn't find out who each other were until much later on in the show. Oh well, that's what fanfiction is for. XD Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own AD:JL, this work of fiction is for fan enjoyment only.

000

He was stuck . . . in a box.

And he wasn't alone.

He was stuck in a box . . . with her.

Of all people to be stuck in a magical box with, it had to be her.

Which, of course, meant that they were fighting.

And did he mention the box was growing smaller with every passing minute?

Jake sighed, then yelped. "Girl, watch the tail!" He shifted awkwardly in the corner. His cellmate huffed.

"Maybe if someone morphed back into their human form, we would have more room."

"Hah! Not a chance," he snorted. "Although the view is mighty fine. The hunka-hunka AmDrag is both smoking hot as a human and as a dragon," he finished with a smug grin spread across his face.

She clucked her tongue. "Please. The only thing smoking hot in here is the foul stench coming from under you wings. And by smoking hot I mean utterly repulsive."

Yep, they were fighting.

But at least they were fighting with words and not fists.

"This is all your fault, you know," she stated bluntly.

"Excuse me? I wasn't the one who had to go steal some priceless artifact from the Museum of Natural History." He waved his hands around for effect.

"And I wasn't the one who had to play hero and interrupt my pick up." She waved her hands around to mock him.

"Pick up? Is that what all the villains are calling it nowadays?" He cocked an eyebrow.

"Shut it, lizard breath!"

"You shut it!"

And at the very least their fighting was somewhat . . . intelligible.

"So," she crossed her arms, "what's the plan?"

"What plan?"

"The plan to get out of here, durrr!" she sassed.

"Why do I have to come up with the plan? You were the one who started all of this." He crossed his arms as well.

"You're the dragon, magical protector and all that crap! Obviously you should know how to get out of here." She rolled her eyes.

"Obviously if I knew how to get out of here we wouldn't be stuck in this stupid box anymore. Besides, you should know more about this thing anyway, since you came here for the," he created quotation marks with his claws, "pick up."

"Oh please dragon, yo-" she was interrupted by a jolt from the walls, causing them to fly into each other.

"Ugh, get off me you freak!"

"You get off me!"

At least it couldn't get any worse, right?

The walls were closing in . . . their bickering was slowly diminishing in wit . . .

"No seriously, we need a plan." After an uncomfortable rearrangement, the two sat side by side against the back wall, with arms crossed and chins stuck up.

"No really? I thought we could sit here all night and gossip about our secrets," Jake rebuked. Thorn tried not to sigh too loudly.

The walls jerked again and she fell into him. Her shoulder, a hot point of flesh on his bicep, and her hand rested awkwardly on his thigh.

"Sorry," she muttered, absentmindedly.

"You're excused, pervert," he grinned.

Thorn quickly stiffened upright and moved herself to the adjacent wall. She refused to give him the satisfaction of glaring at him.

Ok, so maybe it could get worse.

Yeah, he shut her up good, but now she wasn't even helping him brain storm ideas on how to get out of the box.

"Hey," he said, noticing how her boots where painfully pressing into his leg, "sit on my lap."

That finally got a response out of her. "Excuse me? Who's the pervert now?"

"Fine, get crushed between me and the wall. See if I care."

She simply slumped down the wall further and pressed her boots deeper into his leg.

Did he mention it was getting hot in there?

As a matter of fact, yes, it was.

As the walls closed in, the air inside was also getting compressed and higher air pressure meant higher temperatures. Jake couldn't decide which was worse: getting crushed to death or getting boiled to death.

Begrudgingly accepting defeat, Thorn now sat in the American Dragon's lap.

"Wow," she mused, "looks like your ingenious plan is working. I can almost taste the fresh air from outside." She crossed her arms and leaned back, her head resting under the tip of Jake's chin. He tried not to squirm.

Both of his arms were stretched out on either side, pushing against the walls, tensed to the max.

"I'm pushing, alright? Geez."

Heat plus cramped quarters equals irritated prisoners: this was an equation Jake was getting to know very quickly.

"Push harder," she demanded.

Jake huffed out a growl.

Arch enemy or not, she was still a girl.

And he was still a boy.

And she was still sitting on him cramped together in a very hot box.

And it was still very, very awkward.

And it didn't help matters that they were both starting to sweat.

"I'm pushing side to side and front to back, why don't you help by pushing up and down?" Jake callously suggested.

"Fine, maybe I will," she conceded as the sweat caused her to slide down his belly. Fortunately for Jake, his cheeks were already flushed from the heat.

She sat up, placed her feet between his legs and palms on the ceiling, and then pushed.

"Gahh!" Jake gasped out in pain. "Without crushing my ribs, woman!"

"My bad." But she didn't sound very sorry. Repositioning her legs, she straddled his midsection and bent her head down so that both her palms and neck were pressing against the ceiling. This left Jake with an unavoidable view of her firm bum right in his face.

Hot? Check.

Incredibly awkward? Big. Red. Check.

"Hey," Jake panted, trying to look anywhere but directly in front of him. "That thing you chanted before we got stuck in here, say it again."

"Why?" she questioned, "that had nothing to do with us getting stuck in here."

"It might have. Just say it again," he encouraged.

"Or it might collapse the box even further," she countered.

"Better than getting slowly crushed and boiled to death." He had a point.

Thorn sighed then repeated the words. Nothing happened.

"See, it didn't work." She almost added an 'I told you so.'

"Say it backwards," he commanded.

"What? Why?"

"Because some spells work like that. Just say it backwards."

"Wow, I'm impressed dragon. You finally came up with a plan," she chided.

"Woman, quit giving me lip and say the stupid words!" Of all times to be a smart ass . . .

She repeated the words, reversing each syllable. Again, nothing happened.

"I told you-" But before she could finish her insult, the walls lurched forward with alarming speed. Huntsgirl lost her footing and feel back on top of Jake, whom also lost his grip on the apposing walls. His arms instinctively circled around her as he felt pressure from every wall painfully crush him. But, as quickly as the walls compressed forward, they halted, and then blew away and gracefully dissolved into the nighttime air.

Because it finally couldn't get any worse, it got better.

They were free!

From that stupid, stupid box.

Jake laid sprawled on the ground, breathing deeply. "Sweet, beautiful, merciful cool air," he exhaled. Thorn also laid sprawled atop his belly, deeply breathing in the cool air. Jake suddenly noticed her chest rising and falling with his, and his arms were still around her waist. He quickly dropped his hands to the sides before she could accuse him of being a pervert.

She sat up and looked him square in the eye.

"Well," he said, expectantly.

"You were right," she mumbled quietly

"What was that? I couldn't here you over my own self gloating," he said with a cocky grin. She punched him in the ribs.

"You were right!" she shouted resentfully. She crossed her arms and pouted.

"And?"

"I'm not apologizing to a fifthly dragon!" Jake shifted slightly and she toppled forward, realizing that she was still very weak from being trapped inside the box. It suddenly dawned on her that she desperately needed the AmDrag's help if she ever wanted to escape from this dingy museum sometime soon. Her shoulders slumped down in defeat.

"Fine," she muttered, "I'm sorry."

Jake grinned like a fool.

Yeah, things could only get better.

FIN