From Your Valentine: Chapter One

His first impression of her was of how strangely she reminded him of a strawberry coated marshmallow. Small, soft, rosy colored, and with a odd bouncing sensation that placed here all around the room at the same time. She was someone easy to like and get used to with the only problem being that she absolutely loved Bunnymund, which Jack still couldn't understand why.

"Everyone loves the Easter bunny." he joked while shoving Jack's shoulder.

She was introduced as Cupid, but she hardly resembled the diaper wearing, chubby cherub that was placed on every Valentine's day cards. The girl was slightly smaller than Tooth, maybe by a foot or less, and her body a bit more human like compared to her, but she had similar avian features as Tooth.

Unlike Tooth, Cupid had rich strawberry blond hair that reached her shoulder and was mixed with white feathers with pink and red tips. The feather also grew on her arms and her legs and on her back, which those would be called wings and not feathers. Her small wings looked to be more of an angel than a bird, which would only explain why the other introduced her to him as Cupid.

Her skin was bright and shining and always flushed because she was never resting, or maybe she was always blushing because even when sitting on the shoulder of Bunnymund she was flushed. She wore a white, feathered, tunic dress tied with a gold rope around her waist. Her legs were fully covered by white leggings, also with feathers, that ended above her ankles. Her feet wear was a strange one: knee-high, golden Greek sandals that were fitted over the leggins.

It was explained to him from beginning on why it was they had brought her before the red bag crossed the portal and was told he was going to be accompanying her for a small while. Cupid, like the name suggested, was a love sprite, or spirit, and thought to be Pitch's target after having failed on his last attempt on getting rid of the guardians. They believed that Jack was their best offense in making sure Cupid didn't end up in Pitch's hands.

How Pitch was tied to Cupid and able to cause major trouble using the girl, he wasn't sure, but this job seemed easy and fun. Cupid seemed to have the same ideals as he did; no rules and no limits and absolutely having a great time every time. Though, as the others explained, having a 'great time' for her usually ended up as a 'bad time'.

"Love, look at his marvelous teeth." Tooth called out to the smaller girl before she pried Jack's mouth open. "The rumors were true, you see?!"

"They do sparkle like freshly fallen snow!"

"Look, Love, don't get too close to that." Bunnymund was large enough to take whole of Cupid from the air and place her on his shoulder. "Hang around with him too long and you won't be borderline naughty this Christmas, but will be on the actual list."

"borderline naughty?" Jack asked with a crooked grin as he raised a brow at Cupid. He gave her a full smile when she turned her hot pink eyes at him and grinned sweetly. "I thought you were either naughty or nice, not borderline of both."

"Love is. . .hard to place." North explained with a laugh as Cupid began to pull on Bunnymund's ears for no explainable reason.

As to why they called her Love, Jack didn't know because they didn't bother to explain it to him. He could call her whatever he wanted to call her: Love, Cupid, even Valentine. Of course he wasn't about to call a girl he just met Love or Valentine. No one could see her, but if he was seen saying those names into thin air, well, kids would probably get the wrong idea.

Cupid was indeed easy to be around with and once they were out of the North Pole, they got along great. That is until he tried to explain to her that his name was Jack Frost and not what he kept on calling him. The only thing that drove him insane was the way in which she got his attention:

"Jokul, I heard from Sandy that a dingo was trying to eat Bunny." she said while flying beside him.

"It's Jack, and it wasn't a dingo." he told her, "It was a greyhound."

Jack had always been alone and even after becoming a guardian he had done his duty alone. Now, with Cupid beside him, he wonder how it was he was supposed to have fun while taking care of her. He had to keep an eye out for her not to get entangled with Pitch while still making sure the  kids had fun in the snow.

She wasn't like Tooth, always worrying about collecting and keeping record of memories. She wasn't like Sandy, sticking to a specific hour to do what she was brought to this world to do. She wasn't like North, keeping an eye on who was good and bad. And she wasn't like Bunnymund, which he was glad for.

Cupid was like him from the year before; not believed in by kids. How could he have fun with Jamie and his friends while leaving her on the side because they couldn't see her? He could try to introduce her to them and maybe have them actually see her, but he doubted that. They were kids and kids weren't that great with the romantic things that Cupid represented.

"Freeze," Cupid said beside him when they reached a fire hydrant that had water rushing out of it like a geyser. "All the water!"

"We really shouldn't be doing this." Jack told her, but looking at her amused look as she waited for him to freeze the water made him change his mind. Not like he was going to say no to a little bit of trouble. "But we have nothing better to do, right?"

"Of course."

To keep thing short, the entire road had been closed do to it being covered in ice. Nothing could go through until it melted or until they managed to scrape it off. This only alerted the kids that Jack Frost was back in town and only need to be asked for him to create a snow day. Cupid seemed just as excited as the kids did as they began to pour out of their houses to go ski in the iced road.

"Can I ask you one thing? If it's not to personal, I mean." Jack told her as snow began to fall on them. Cupid looked up at him from the snow she had caught in her hands. "How did you—how did you become one of the spirits? You also don't look. . . sad about not being seen."

"I thought you were briefed on me before I was thrown through the portal." she began to form a ball with the snow in her hands. She ignored his first question, but answered the second. "I'm not sad for not being seen because love is not seen. Love is felt from in here." she placed her hand above her heart, "You've even felt it before. I know you have because I've feel it every day, every night, and every second of every minute of every hour."

"So, what do you do?" he leaned back to check out her white wings and saw a bow and a quiver of arrows. "Do you really fly around and shoot people with your heart-shaped arrows? These don't look like something to be played with. . .they don't look like hearts."

Cupid threw the snow at one of the older kids, one of those who were not really kids and not yet teenagers. It hit him square on the back of the head and making him turn around and glare at the people who he thought had thrown it at him. His eyes landed on a group of girls that giggle and made him turned bright red.

Jack could see that Cupid didn't need arrows to strike someone with affection towards another. The boy she had hit with the snowball kept glancing over at one of the girls that had giggle. He seemed to me smile every time one of the other girl elbowed the girl he had been eying and then pointing at him.

"This is my arrow." Cupid said beside him while placing the golden arrow with a heart-shaped tip into her bow. She had it aimed at the girl the boy had been peeking at and as soon as the girl turned to look where her friend was point, at the same time the boy turned, Cupid shot her arrow. "Right in the heart! Lovely!"

Cupid arrow had indeed gone straight into the heart of the girls, piercing her throw the front and coming out throw her back. Jack flinch at the sight, it was something that looked painful to the person who had been struck, but the girl didn't look in pain. She was blushing and giggling even more than before as she turned away from the boy.

"It doesn't hurt, Jokul." Cupid told him as if reading his mind. She was likely reading his face because her hot pink eyes didn't stray from it. "Well, it doesn't hurt now that it's only a bud. It blooms and then, if it's not the right person, it dies like any full grown flower."

She looked sad at that, Jack noted. If she wasn't sad for not been believe in and seen, she sure look depressed when speaking of dying love.

"Sometimes it doesn't bloom into a rose but another flower that means another love." she explained before he had a chance to ask about another types of love. "There the pink carnation!"

"Pink carnation?" he asked.

She nodded happily as she pointed as a young couple with a baby in a stroller. It was their first child by the looks of it and they had brought him out to see his first snowflake while still cover his head from them.

"A mother's love." Cupid explained. "A flower that is dedicated to all mothers."

"Then, by blooming into a rose you mean the romantic kind of love?"

"The flower stands for love." she said as she hugged her knees to her chest, which in the air was a very strange sight. She was looking at the kids she had hit before with mesmerized eyes. "That kind of love is also wonderful to see. . . very entertaining too."

Jack grinned at that last part. "You make people fall in love and then watch. Is that why you're borderline naught and not borderline nice?"

He couldn't tell whether she was blushing or if he was just looking at the effect the sun had on her warm skin. She was grinning at him, "I don't only create puppy love, Jokul. Love isn't always good, and perfect, and nice."

"No. It's sometimes bad, and imperfect," he returned her grin. "and usually naughty."

"I blamed teenagers for not me making the nice list."

"What? You want to make the nice list and leave me all alone to get coal in my stocking?" he asked while pulled her down by the quiver of bows. "You'll love it on the naughty list. We can even have a challenge on who will hold the new record this time around."

Cupid seemed to be thinking it over before responding. "That's not at all a fair game. I have a couple of weeks and you already hold record!"

But even after saying that, Jack could see that he had made something click inside her head and could see it working its way into something 'lovely' as she put it. How much trouble could the love spirit actually get into, he thought. All she could do was create a kid's first crush, a teenager's first love, and anyone's true love. Love was not a bad thing and could never be seen as bad, so there was no way she could get on the naughty list for spreading love.

"Jokul, are you just going to stand there while there is work to be done?" she asked from above him, the sun making her shine and making her look like a real cupid like angel. Jack grinned at the word 'work' because neither of them actually had to do any sort of work. "Jokul, make it snow already!"

Now, if only he could stop her from calling him that and make her start calling him by his name; Jack Frost.