A/N: Happy late holidays! Sorry for the super late update. College got super busy, then I got sick, then it was the holidays. If it helps, I've at least started working on a fourth chapter There are notes at the end, including information about the summer spirit in this chapter since I just took him from Greek myth.

Summary: Jack gets into a fight with a summer spirit and has to wait for someone to save him.

Next time I see Notus, I'm freezing him solid, Jack thought to himself, wincing as he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. His entire body ached from slamming into the ground and even with how quickly spirits healed he knew he'd be feeling it for a couple days. He could deal with that, except there were also a few burn marks splattered across his body, sweatshirt singed and blackened where Notus had hit him. Being a winter spirit, those would take far longer to heal than simple bruises.

But Jack was almost used to this by now. It wasn't the first time a summer spirit had attacked him. There was a type of territoriality between the summer and winter spirits. It didn't matter that clearly Father Winter had declared winter in a certain spot, or that Gaea announced the beginning of summer, they fought anyway. Jack tended to stay out of it - unless the other spirits forcefully dragged him in.

Jack should've known he was asking for trouble going to Greece, but he'd felt the silent urging from Father Winter that meant winter needed to be brought there and he'd flown off without a second thought. Notus considered Greece his territory and while usually he didn't cause problems (or Jack got in and out way too quickly for Notus to cause any problems), today had clearly been one of those days where he did cause problems.

Jack wasn't looking forward to explaining this to the Guardians. They were due to have a meeting that night and based on the throbbing of his cheek, he was pretty sure he had a decent sized bruise there that they'd all be able to see. The Guardians had been around for a long time and in a lot of areas knew more than Jack, but they seemed completely oblivious to what was going on with other spirits (and especially the seasonal spirits who often hibernated and avoided others - Jack tended to stand out among the spirits in this way, having always been trying to get attention from other spirits even when failing). Explaining the bruise would already suck, explaining how the winter and summer spirits often got into fights at the turn of the seasons would be even worse. Because really, he had no better explanation and Tooth and Sandy, at the very least, would want one.

Of course, none of that would matter if he melted from the heat. Pushing himself up to his feet, Jack wiped a hand across his brow. He was already starting to sweat. Because where else would Notus drop him except some place hot. He'd lost track of where they were during the fight, trying to use the wind to out-run the summer spirit. All it had succeeded in was landing him on an extremely hot island because apparently Notus was smart enough (and Jack oblivious enough) to herd him away from the cold.

Yeah, Notus was getting frozen solid next time they met.

"Okay, where are you?" Jack muttered under his breath, looking around for his staff. He could only control the wind with his staff, and during the fight Notus had managed to knock it out of his hand, leading to the fall. It couldn't have gotten far though. He'd seen his staff while falling and it had been just barely out of arm's reach.

Except now, looking all around and walking a few feet in every which direction, he couldn't find it anywhere. "So it fell a little farther than I thought. It's still around here somewhere," Jack said to himself, stamping down the tendrils of panic that were beginning to bloom in his chest.

He kept searching, walking in a circle and slowly expanding out so he wouldn't miss it. But after another half hour, and with his sweatshirt clinging to his skin and hair clinging to his face and wondering who decided the sun was a good idea, there was still no sign of his staff.

He stopped the search, standing underneath a tree and looking once more around him. "Where can it be? It couldn't have fallen that far away. Unless-" Jack's eyes widened. No. Sure summer spirits hated winter spirits, but surely Notus wouldn't have stolen his staff?

Oh who was he kidding, Notus had totally stolen his staff. And now the panic that Jack had been trying to reason away came back full force and no amount of trying to reason or hope could stop it. Because without his staff, he was stuck here. He already felt like he was melting and was quickly running out of energy, wanting nothing more than to stay sitting on the ground. He wasn't entirely sure if he could die from the heat - hot things certainly weren't healthy for winter spirits but he was also technically dead already, could he die twice? He'd never heard of a seasonal spirit dying, sometimes they just faded away or had to hibernate whether because of the weather changing or to heal themselves but as far as he knew none had died from the heat.

That was at least slightly comforting, that he likely wouldn't die here. Didn't make it any better that he likely would end up hibernating in a snowbank for the next couple weeks - if he got off this island. That was the real problem, because the only way off without his staff was to wait and hope the Guardians found him. They'd realize something was wrong when he didn't show up to the meeting (he was actually strangely punctual to these, despite what everyone else likely had thought). Between North's snowglobes and sleigh, Bunny's tunnels, and Tooth's mini fairies it couldn't take that long to find him once they realized he was missing.

So Jack sat down at the base of a tree, trying to take advantage of the flimsy shade the leaves provided. He pulled his sweatshirt over his head, grimacing slightly. Underneath was his old shirt, the one he'd been wearing when he'd saved his sister and then been brought back. It was ratty and falling apart, but he'd neve been able to get rid of it. Besides, with his sweatshirt no one ever saw it anyway. He briefly considered taking it off too in an attempt to cool down even more, but he doubted it was containing much heat to begin with and when a Guardian found him he'd rather they not see just how thin he was.

He leaned his head back against the tree trunk, humming slightly in an attempt to keep himself awake. If he fell asleep now, he might just end up hibernating and hibernating in the heat was definitely not a good idea. When he ran out of tunes to hum, he started thinking of pranks he could pull on Bunny. Eventually he ran out of prank ideas too. His brain was sluggishly slow and his skin was burning from the heat. He was pretty sure he'd stopped sweating a couple minutes ago which couldn't be good.

It was so hard to think in the heat that Jack only noticed the slight shaking under the ground after the earth caved in a few yards away from him and a Pooka jumped out. Jack's vision had become blurry and nothing was connecting with his brain, but he was fairly certain he managed some witty quip as Bunnymund came towards him. Something about "aww, was the kangaroo worried about me?" because Bunnymund did look worried which wasn't an expression Jack was used to seeing on the Pooka's face and joking about it made it a little less worrisome.

He was distantly aware of Bunnymund picking him up, tapping his foot on the ground, and then they were sliding down one of his tunnels. He didn't remember closing his eyes but next thing he knew he was at the Workshop, Baby Tooth fluttering worriedly above his head and ice being packed around him. He tried to open his mouth, to warn them that he would need to hibernate because they likely had no clue that's how elemental spirits often healed themselves, but the warmth of sleep drew him back before he could.

It was a week later that Jack woke up, not that he knew that right away. He wasn't packed in ice like he'd been when he'd fallen into hibernation, which was fine because the North Pole wasn't blisteringly hot and North had made his room especially cold compared to the rest of the Workshop. There was however still a Baby Tooth flying around him and some rather worried Guardians.

The ensuing conversation was exactly what he'd been dreading. Except it was made even worse because apparently the Guardians had figured out at least part of what had happened, demonstrated by presenting him with his staff and asking who had attacked him because Jack those are clearly bruises on your face and your staff was halfway across the world from you yes someone attacked you.

Jack grimaced, doing his best to avoid giving a straight answer until Sandy put his nose right up against Jack's with a look that meant trouble if Jack didn't answer. So he explained the entire deal with winter and summer spirits and how Notus had attacked him and how he was definitely getting frozen next time Jack had to go to Greece. Talking down the Guardian was the actual hard part, with all of them looking ready to go after Notus themselves.

"Listen, guys, while I'm glad you want to help me, I don't need your help. It's just how things work with seasonal spirits. It's not a big deal." North looked ready to argue at that comment, but instead a shared look between the Guardians quieted him.

"Okay, second question. You were out for a week, mate, but your temp stabilized days ago. What was that about?" Bunny asked, ear flickering slightly.

"Oh, seasonal spirits hibernate. We need to hibernate every couple years, but if we're hurt or just don't want to deal with the opposite season then we also hibernate. They take a while," Jack explained, smirking a bit at the shared look of confusion among the Guardians. They really needed a 101 course on seasonal spirits, but that would have to wait for another day as Jack yawned. Despite sleeping for the last week, he still wasn't completely up to stuff. If this had been a regular hibernation he'd have been jumping all over the place already, but healing hibernations often left him exhausted after waking up.

The Guardians, of course, noticed and started making their way out so he could sleep, but not before Tooth gave him a quick hug followed by Baby Tooth hugging his nose. North clapped a hand on his shoulder, saying in a loud jolly voice how good it was that Jack was back and alright. Before Sandy could send him dream sand, Jack snagged Bunny's wrist.

"Thanks, for finding me," Jack said, his voice low. A few months ago he would've never expected that Bunny of all people would save him, he'd have more expected the Guardian to simply leave him on that island if he'd even noticed Jack in the first place. They still had issues, scars left over from being ignored for 300 years and Jack was still a bit guarded around them, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop and to be shoved away again. But the scars were beginning to fade and despite how terrible this entire experience had been, the Guardians felt a bit more like a second family to him.

Bunny looked back at him, a small smile on his face even if he seemed confused and uncomfortable with the gratitude. "No problem, mate. Can't let you go and melt on us, can I?" Jack chuckled as he let go of Bunny's wrist and the Pooka left. He laid his head back down on the pillow just as dreamsand floated over, the last thing he saw being golden dolphins jumping above him.

A/N: Not sure how I feel about the second half but hope y'all liked it! I really need to start adding in more dialogue but my writing style lately has been very... floaty I guess? I've got some ideas in mind that will involve more dialogue though. Also I wrote the first half like weeks ago and the second half recently so if something doesn't make sense or seems contradictory just let me know and I'll fix it.

Notus is the Greek god of the South Wind and was associated with really hot winds and destroying crops (and storms but we're gonna ignore that). I didn't want to come up with my own summer spirit because I'm bad at coming up with names but figures like Apollo and Helios just felt weird in this situation?

A lot of fics I've read have mentioned Jack hibernating and the winter and summer spirits feuding with each other so those aren't my original ideas. I also headcanon that Jack talks to himself a lot given that no one could see him for 300 years (which is, kinda canon? since he talks to the kids even though they can't see him).

If anyone's curious, North doesn't say anything because the Guardians are intending to have a private conversation about "it's just how things work" and also feel really guilty at the idea that Jack's been dealing with this for 300 years.

As always, reviews/follows/favs are appreciated and constructive criticism more than welcome!