This is sort of a sequel to my other fic called "In Sickness and Health" as in it's referenced a few times, but this can be read independently. Warning: Silliness and possible grammar and/or typing errors ahead.

1. Fried

Early spring in the northern hemisphere was always a slightly depressing time for Jack Frost. Seeing all that hard work, all those unique snowflakes and frost flowers melting into piles of slush was more than enough to make him feel down. Of course, spring in the north meant he had his work cut out for him in the south. And the higher mountaintops were still free game, so it was all right in the end. And now that he was a part of the Guardians, he could always go to find Bunny or just chat with North, or maybe go flying around with Sandy. And Tooth would no doubt welcome him any time especially if he smiled widely. So no, there was no fear of getting bored during the off-season this year. With that knowledge he could almost enjoy a little break after the busiest time. Yes, he could definitely enjoy spring, even if it meant dealing with the...

"Frost? I thought I made it clear it's time for you to go!"

Speak of the devil...

Jack was sitting in the wind, looking down to a very disgruntled, furry face that had popped out of the snow. The thing was small and chubby and would have looked almost cute if it wasn't scowling so dangerously at Jack.

"You listening, punk?" the head growled.

Jack smirked and waved his staff in a cheerful greeting he knew was very annoying to the other.

"Hey, Groundy!"

The Groundhog huffed.

"Don't get all friendly with me, Frost!"

"Don't you always get too grumpy."

Groundhog shook some excess snow off of his head.
"I'm grumpy 'cause you dropped snow all over me!"

"I did not. It fell from that tree. Don't be such a sissy."

Groundhog rolled his eyes. For some reason the gesture didn't sit well with the furry face, and it amused Jack quite a bit. He wouldn't have minded sticking around for some more not-too-serious banter, but the Guardians were about to have another meeting in less than an hour. They had got together much more frequently after Jack had joined the group. Jack had a theory that it was partly because the others wanted to make sure he didn't make too much trouble on his own. He could have been insulted by the mild lack of trust, but he had to admit that he kind of deserved it. He did spend the entire last night decorating all the trees around him with an extra layer of snow just to make sure the Groundhog would shake some off when it came to chase Jack away from the area. Jack crossed his legs while still sitting on empty air and gave the still grumbling Groundhog another smirk.

"Alright, alright. You win. I have things to do anyway. Keep it cool."

"Don't you start making puns with me!"

Jack looked at the Groundhog blankly.
"I wasn't. I... Oh, right, I get it. It wasn't intentional, I swear!"

"Good to hear," Groundhog murmured.

"I'll see you around."

"Yeah," the Groundhog's expression softened, but not enough to be genuinely friendly, "Stay away from my turf, kiddo. The sun might get you if you don't."

It was probably a threat. Jack wasn't quite sure. He didn't exactly get along with the Groundhog, but there wasn't outright hate involved either. Considering their meetings consisted of one party chasing the other off, there wasn't much room for friendship. In either way, Jack dealt with it with a smile and peppy friendliness. He knew it annoyed the other just a little, but not too much to turn the squabbles into an all-out war.

So he responded to the probably not a threat with a happy wave before speeding off towards the North Pole. If it had been a threat, it hadn't been a very good one. Even if Jack was the Spirit of Winter, that didn't mean a little bit of heat could bring him down.

When he thought back to this moment a few hours later, Jack would laugh at the irony of those thoughts. And then he would remember to never tempt fate again.

As Jack had some time ago boasted to himself in his mind, a bit of warmth wasn't going to bring him down. No way. A very sunny day and a close proximity with an active volcano, on the other hand... well, that was another matter. Jack usually avoided volcanoes. They weren't normally his turf, as some fluffy spirits would put it. But apparently certain Australian Cottontail had decided the day of a meeting was a good day to go hunting for some super exotic ingredients for his new chocolates. Bunny had been unusually late for the meeting, and the other Guardians had requested that Jack would go and see what the hold-up was. He had accepted, mostly because it was nice to feel trusted enough to get a special assignment. But when Jack had got into Bunny's Warren, there had been a noticeable lack of seven-foot rabbits in there. The mighty egg sentinels had after some communication issues finally pointed Bunny's location to be a small volcanic island in the Pacific. Definitely not Jack's turf.

But he had been told to get Bunny, so he would do just that. Jack caught the wind outside the Warren and rode it to the island. It was small and tropical and its terrain burned Jack's bare feet as he landed. He decided to stay airborne after that short contact with the ground and kept his trusted old shepherd's crook tightly hugged to his body, the frosted wood reassuringly cool against him. At least his ice powers would keep him from being fried in the sun. He scaled the small shore before the heat drove him under the shade of the few trees on the small patch of land.

"Bunny?" he shouted, not really expecting an answer, "Come on! Bunny! Meeting time!"

Weren't Bunny's senses supposed to be superior to those of humans? Jack stopped by the foot of the small, gently sloping volcano in the middle of the island and cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Bunny!"

Nothing.

"Kangaroo?!"

"I'm a bunny!"

The shout was faint, and it came from somewhere close to the volcano's crater. Jack smirked at his victory.

"I knew that would do it."

He found Bunny standing at the edge of the crater. The rabbit had a basket full of some unidentifiable ingredients with him. At least Jack figured they were ingredients. Bunny looked up when Jack stopped his flight and hovered high above the crater, a safe distance away from the lava.

"I heard ya, Frostbite," Bunny greeted gruffly, "What're you doing here?"

Jack blinked when a drop of something salty stung his eyes. Sweat? Okay, so it was sweltering hot, but it wouldn't bring him down. Sure, it was uncomfortable at best for most mortals, but Jack was a spirit. He was applying a cooling aura around himself as they spoke. Just because heat wasn't his thing it didn't mean he would...

"Frostbite?"

Jack shook his head and wiped his face with the still cold sleeve of his hoodie.
"I was sent here to drag your fluffy tail to the Pole. Meeting time."

Bunny's green eyes widened.
"Oh, that's right. 'Twas supposed to start a while ago."

"Yep. It did. You seem to be getting sloppy with age."

Bunny folded his arms and scowled.
"You know we don't age. Though ya could use a few centuries worth of common sense."

Jack was about to retort, but he had to stop to wipe more sweat from his face. And then... wait! He blinked rapidly. Was he seeing two Bunnies now?

"Snowflake?" Bunny frowned with apparent worry, "Jack? You okay?"

"I... I don't know," Jack admitted, surprised to notice how feeble his voice suddenly was, "It's kind of toasty here."

"It is. And ya look sick."

"I don't get sick," Jack protested, but even as he spoke, sudden nausea caused him to curl up in the air. He took deep breaths and tried to keep his breakfast – which consisted mostly of Christmas cookies – in. His free arm found its way around his midsection and he hastily enveloped himself in a layer of frost and ice, which started melting almost immediately.

"I'll be fine once I'm out of this oven," Jack managed to say between breaths that were surprisingly hard to take in, "Just get to the Pole, okay?"

Bunny had a very odd expression on his face. Or maybe it just looked odd because Jack's vision was swimming like a hyperactive dolphin. Maybe he had used too much of his powers to keep himself cool. Even staying airborne made him dizzy. That was actually very scary, considering how much at home he usually felt in the figurative arms of the wind. In fact, the whole situation made him more scared than the terrifying animated Finnish thin ice warning he had once been unfortunate enough to watch through the window of a house with a very big TV. He wanted to take off, to fly away from the blasted heat, but he could only curl up tighter and hope for the sudden moment of weakness to pass.

The sun might get you...

"Oh, come on!" he said out loud when the disembodied head of the Groundhog appeared in front of him, "I just had that conversation this morning! I don't need a flashback to remember it!"

"That's it!" Bunny huffed, "Ya're delirious. Get down here, I'll give ya a ride to the Pole."

Jack wanted very much to protest just to spite his friend, but his vision was dimming fast. He was getting sleepy. Very sleepy...

He dimly registered strong, fluffy arms catching him before he hit the ground.

North hadn't thought anything would go wrong when the Guardians had sent Jack to fetch Bunnymund from the Warren. All the other Guardians – North, Toothiana, Sandy, and Jack had been more or less on time for their meeting, but Bunny hadn't showed up. They weren't really worried. It was nearly Easter, so Bunny was just very busy. Still, a meeting was a meeting, so someone had to go and drag the Easter Bunny out. The main reason why the others had suggested Jack was that they wanted to make the boy feel more trusted. Their youngest was clearly starting to suspect that his abilities to take responsibility were being doubted.

They all trusted Jack. They really did. The boy had proven himself more than once. And he had quite splendidly taken care of the rest of the group while they had been sick a while ago. The boy had even managed to keep the elves in check. It was impressive, considering those pointy little idiots were the cause of at least twenty yetis going prematurely grey from stress. North had to give the kid a round of applause for that. And he had, several times.

The Guardians waited in the huge globe room at the workshop. The believing children's lights around the globe were reassuringly bright and nothing was wrong there. North was feeling even more energetic than usual and he felt like the ideas for the next Christmas were practically overflowing in his head. His two other companions seemed fine as well. Sandy's round, golden form was surrounded by creative dreamsand miracles even as they sat waiting, and Toothiana was as busy and bubbly as ever, flitting around in a blur of feathers and colour. Her fairies were apparently all on the field, seeing how she was surprisingly enough not surrounded by them.

It didn't take long for Bunnymund's tall, imposing, and fluffy form to appear at one of the doorways of the room. The grey bunny hopped over to the others, and North spread his arms in greeting. However, his joyful mood was very much dampened when Bunny reached over his shoulder to bring the limp form of a boy into his arms. A very familiar mess of white hair rested over Bunnymund's arm and Bunny gave an irritated huff.

"Yeah, this time it's nurse Frosty who ain't feeling so good."

Author's Note: Meh. I was kinda not planning to write anything like this, since Jack getting sick has been done quite a lot. However, one guest reviewer by the nick Heather suggested I should write a sort of a reverse situation from In Sickness and Health and I thought well, it might help me get rid of this massive writer's block that I have concerning pretty much all of my original stories.

That Finnish thin ice PSA is incredibly creepy but it is also very effective and necessary in a country with hundreds of thousands of lakes that freeze every year.

The random conversation between Jack and the Groundhog was inspired by the fact that the weather really doesn't know whether to be winter or spring! It's kind of annoying and the roads are barely walkable, let alone bikeable (that's not a word, right?) because of all that slush and ice and icy slush. Gah!

Thank you all who have reviewed my other fics! If you feel like dropping a review for this one, I'd be very happy!