Wowowow! It's been so long since I've written, and thanks so much for the feedback on the author's note! I've not yet updated some of the older stories, but here's a quick drabble I did because I was having some severe Jack/Sandy feelings after skimming over ROTG fanfics for several days and coming up with hardly anything for this lovely pairing!

Most of this particular drabble can be taken as platonic, though. It's only the end where it's p obvious it's Jack/Sandy~

Title: Sandman, I'm so alone...

Rating: K

Summary: Sandy is used to Jack's weekly visits, but who knew Jack could sing?

Ever since Jack Frost had been made an official guardian, he had been just as sporadic as his season; present one second, then gone the next. Despite this, there was one thing that all of the elder guardians had noticed: Jack Frost loved to watch them work.

North would be carefully chiseling out a design for a new toy or invention whenever suddenly he'd notice just a small splash of white and blue from the corner of his eye, or Bunnymund would be sketching designs for eggs for the upcoming years whenever he'd see a spark of cyan and the distinctive laugh of a certain Guardian of Childhood. Toothiana would be busy directing her Baby Tooths, flitting from squadron to squadron and quickly chattering coordinates and directions, before her attention would be momentarily snatched by a glimpse of a blue hoodie and the longing squeal of one of her faeries. It was upon further inspection that whichever guardian Jack had decided to pay a visit to would see said winter spirit perched on his staff, a spark of curiosity in his eyes as he observed the guardian at work.

However, the Sandman was easily Jack's favorite guardian to watch. How could he resist the undeniably amazing and elegant dream sand that lit up the dark sky, filling childrens' dreams with wondrous images of hope and happiness and love? Sandy's job was theatrical and beautiful, and often times on his long nights dazzling the night skies with dreams, Jack would fly (or perhaps ride) by the Sandman's golden cloud and ask, a slightly nervous smile on his pale face, if he could join him on his trek.

Even if Sandy had wanted to, he could never reject Jack's imploring face.

And so it became a weekly endeavor for the two spirits. Sandy would make his rounds as usual, and eventually Jack would join him, always asking with a casual but careful smile if he could give the stout guardian a bit of company for the night. Sandy was always happy to oblige, and together they traveled the globe to deliver dreams, and occasionally light snows, to the children of the world.

Dolphins the size of quarters bobbed leisurely through the night air, playfully bobbing between the long white fingers of Jack Frost as they swam laps around the teen, his appendages being used as convenient obstacles for the dreams. Glimmering threads of sand trailed lazily after the aquatic creatures as they danced through the chilled air, occasionally being disrupted by a finger poking the tail fin of a slightly slower dolphin, sending the little dream squealing silently through the night air to catch up with its companions.

Jack pulled his hand away with a soft chuckle as the dolphins grouped up, Sandy sending off the pod along one of his many tendrils of sand. "Thanks for letting me hang out with you as usual, Sandy," Jack said with a slightly forced lopsided grin as he laid back on a pillow- courtesy of Sandy's dream sand, of course.

The small man nodded from the center of the cloud, giving him a warm smile as he conducted his nightly orchestra of dreams. Jack was always welcome, and he had hoped that by this point in time, the youngest guardian would have realized that.

The two sat in a comfortable silence; often this was how their visits went. Conversation wasn't forced between the two, and there was a mutual respect for the simple presence of each other. Whenever Jack had a particularly interesting story to tell, however, Sandy was always excited to sit down and listen, the smaller guardian rolling with laughter at the appropriate times, or allowing sand clouds to steam out of his ears at others. Likewise, Jack always patiently 'listened' to Sandy whenever the smaller guardian felt particularly talkative, and it was Jack's surprising patience with Sandy's limited speech methods that made Jack all the more endearing to the Sandman.

Despite the silence being common, however, Sandy couldn't help but notice the slight slouch of Jack's posture. His staff digging into the dream cloud and the young guardian's hands clutching the elegantly frosted wood defensively, Jack stared blankly at the stream the dolphins had disappeared into.

Sandy felt a small twinge of concern, but he knew better than to push Jack into admitting there was something wrong. With an internal sigh, Sandy went back to tending his dreams, but made a small mental note to try to edge around the topic if presented with the chance. True, Jack wasn't in tears (as he had been once: Sandy had been outraged whenever he heard the source of the frost spirit's sadness), but it was pretty obvious there was something bugging the poor boy.

A soft humming pulled Sandy's attention from his train of thought, and with a slight turn of his head, Sandy was mildly surprised as he realized that Jack had started to softly sing. Raising an eyebrow, but nonetheless feeling a small sense of relief at the sudden melody, he moved from the center of dream cloud towards where Jack had decided to sprawl out.

"-kind I dream about all day, the kind that keeps me up at night~ Give me that caaaan't sleep love!" Jack sang, his staff stirring up the gold sand beneath them as he did so. He hadn't really noticed Sandman moving towards him, and his soft crooning tapered off quickly whenever he was approached by the older guardian. Cheeks turning an interesting shade of periwinkle, Jack gave Sandy a lopsided smile as he scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment," Oh, sorry, Sandy… I didn't mean to distract you from your work, haha. I got a bit carried away."

Shaking his head, Sandy quickly formed a question mark, followed in succession with a musical note and a rose, of which Sandy playfully tossed in Jack's direction while grinning. Sandy didn't care that Jack was singing, quite the opposite; he was rather impressed with how sweet the spirit's voice sounded, and the lyrics to his little song were quite charming as well.

Jack couldn't help but laugh, his embarrassment dissipating as he scooped up the gold rose and pretended to sniff it, ducking his head in a little bow. "Why thank you, thank you! That song? It was just something I heard awhile ago, and I haven't really been able to get it out of my head… Um, I can't really remember all of the lyrics, to be honest, but I just needed something, um, fun to think about" he admitted with an awkward chuckle.

The golden guardian gave Jack an interested look; he had caught the small pause in Jack's explanation, but upon the guarded look in Jack's eyes, Sandy shrugged. Puffing out one of his cheeks and decided to pretend that he hadn't heard what they both knew he had, Sandy shrugged and just offered Jack a sympathetic smile. Quickly, the silent spirit summoned up another musical note, a miniature Jack, and a small microphone, eventually combining all three images so that a small sand-Jack was singing into a microphone sweetly. As an added effect, Sandy let a few gold roses be thrown at the miniature Jack's feet.

"You want to hear another tune, huh?" Jack's eyebrows raised a bit and he couldn't help but feel pleasantly flattered with Sandy's sudden interest in his singing. Truth be told, he was a little embarrassed about singing so openly, but it was Sandy… And Jack was sort of crashing on his dream cloud several times a month.

One of Jack's cerulean eyes fluttered shut as he pursed his lips, trying to think of a song he knew enough lyrics to to at least sing a full verse. Nothing Christmas-y… North had been rather offended whenever Jack had purposefully mangled one of his precious carols, and had thus been banned from singing them for a few months. He couldn't really think of any other songs he knew substantially enough!

It was upon his eyes searching the sky and ground for any sort of inspiration for song titles that Jack suddenly knew the perfect song.

Laughing suddenly, Jack grinned back at Sandy's amused expression as he leaped up from his resting position. It only took the opening melody for Sandy to instantly clue into what song Jack was singing, and the small man laughed as Jack bounced from corner to corner of his dream cloud, enunciating each 'bum' with a leap.

"Mr. Sandman!" Jack sang, flitting by the song's inspiration. Staff in hand, Jack hooked the eldest guardian around his waist and tugged him over to him, a spark of excitement igniting his energy as he bounced around the golden cloud. "Bring me a dream! Make him the cutest, that I've ever seen!" Jack's singing was interrupted by a laugh as he pulled Sandy close, hugging him as they back flipped through the air only to spring back into a mid-air cartwheel.

Sandy's silent laughter only encouraged Jack's sudden excitement, and the boy continued to sing loudly as he used Sandy's cloud as a trampoline," Give him two lips, like roses and clover, and tell him that his lonesome nights are over!"

"Sandman!" Jack half giggled, half sang as they rolled through the air. Sandy directed some of his sand to form golden musical notes flying up to aid in Jack's impromptu concert, accompanied by little birds that, while not actually making any sound, added to the effect. Any signs of Jack's previous sadness were gone and replaced with a childlike glee as the spirit played and sang loudly on Sandy's cloud.

However, it was whenever they both collapsed into the center of the cloud, Jack holding Sandy up, that suddenly Sandy felt a chill run down his spine as Jack sang in a suddenly less enthusiastic voice," I'm so alone…"

The grin on Jack's face trembled.

"Don't have nobody…. T-to call my own..." Sandy's own smiling face quickly turned to one of concern as he noted the tears gathering in Jack's large eyes, and yet the teen was still grinning painfully.

"Mr. Sandman bring me a dream..." Jack finished, his voice cracking at the end as tears began to flow sluggishly from his eyes. It was his eyes that Sandy saw the pain and sorrow of the boy, and he felt his own heart ache for the winter spirit who was left alone for so long…

Wide, guilt ridden golden-brown eyes stared down in concern and sorrow as Jack slowly lowered the oldest guardian to his chest and clutched him tightly, an embarrassed, strangled laugh coming from Jack as he whispered," I-I forget that's how that song goes, haha…" Jack said as he buried his face into Sandy's shoulder, the golden grains of sand soaking up the few tears that were not instantly frozen.

Thick arms wrapping around Jack's trembling frame, Sandy held Jack tenderly as he comforted the melancholic spirit. It was times like this that the Sandman wished he could speak; wished he could offer words as well as actions to comfort a child so horribly hurt and scarred from living in solitude and scorn for centuries. While Sandy's dream sand streams had been of some comfort to Jack in his earlier years, Sandy was not so foolish as to think that they could ebb the feeling of abandonment and self-hatred the spirit harbored.

"I'm sorry, I just can't- I don't understand why… I just…." Jack stuttered as his wiped at the streams of frozen tears at his cheek. Embarrassment flooded through him, but Sandy just shook his head and shushed him, and Jack felt a small twinge of gratitude for the Sandman.

Sandy understood. He realized that Jack couldn't just get over centuries of being alone in just a couple of months just because he now had a family, and Jack was grateful for the other guardian's understanding. The Dreamweaver knew there would be time for talk later, whenever Jack wasn't so fragile.

With a small sigh, Sandy cursed himself silently for allowing such a thing to even happen; cursed how Jack's long fingers clung to him as if he were scared Sandy would run off, despite the reassurances of this never being the situation, because of his sudden break down. Despite his internal anger at himself, the rotund spirit just continued to gently hold Jack, his pudgy fingers running through Jack's white hair comfortingly as the epitome of winter struggled to get his emotions in check.

A small golden heart flitted close to Jack's face a few minutes later, once Jack had managed to reign in his tears. Looking up with still slightly watery eyes at the illuminated heart, Jack managed a watery smile and a little laugh as he hugged Sandy closer," I love you too, little man."

Sandy pressed a kiss to Jack's forehead as he smoothed back the snowy locks, entwining his hand with Jack's, the small heart he had made swelling and glowing with happiness and hope.

He might not have been there for Jack in the past, but he would be there for him now.

Now and forever.

I hope you guys enjoyed it! I have a whole list of prompts up, and I promise not all of them are Jack/Sandy (although a decent amount are, tbh). So! Expect some updates (eventually), my dears!

Also! This chapter was loosely based off of this comic by w-i-s-s-l-e-r ( post/141238191767/mr-sandman-bring-me-a-dreamdo-not-editusepost )

Reviews are encouraged and appreciated!