Miles To Go Before I Sleep

To Be Hugged By A Jumping Castle

To Be Hugged by a Jumping Castle

...

Sandy blinked as two blasts of wind – one cold and the other hot – tore past him as he touched down in the Workshop. He let his eyes dart the way the air had been flowing to see a blue blur dash around a corner, closely followed by a white one. A thin golden eyebrow rose before Sandy shook it off as unimportant and made to find North.

That is, until he heard the voices.

"Aw, come on, little Snow Cone! You know you want to~"

"STAY AWAY!"

Well, the latter was definitely Jack, but the former… Sandy had thought it was the summer spirit, one of jack's sisters but it couldn't be, could it? Why would Lleu be so far north?

Deciding this warranted further investigation, Sandy abandoned his earlier objective and began making his way in the direction the voices were coming from. It wasn't hard to find them – Jack had left a trail of frost that had miraculously not melted in Lleu's presence.

"I don't know what your problem is, Jack; I think I look fabulous!"

The sound of Lleu led him straight to them; Jack had obviously taken a wrong turn and had cornered himself in a mostly empty storeroom. But it wasn't that that caught the Sandman's attention.

It was what Lleu was wearing.

She looked, for lack of a better term, like a giant marshmallow. Only her head was spared from the puffiness, but despite how absolutely ridiculous she appeared, she seemed to be loving every moment of it.

"Sandy, help!" Jack cried, catching sight of the golden man watching in confusion from the doorway.

Lleu dropped her arms, which had been held out on either side of herself, and turned to peer over her shoulder.

"Hey, Sandman!" she beamed. "What do you think of my new outfit?" she asked, turning a little to the side to give Sandy a better view. "Isn't it great?  I think it makes my bum look big."

Sandy formed a question mark.

"North made it," Lleu explained. "Keeps all the heat in so I can do this!"

Without warning, the summer spirit surged towards her opposite. Jack could only widen his eyes in horror before fat, pudgy arms wrapped around him and smooshed him into an equally pudgy body. His struggles were in vain, and in the end he resigned himself to the equivalent of being hugged by a jumping castle. Actually… maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to tell the elves to jump on her…

Sandy laughed silently at the sight. It wasn't the most fashionable thing he'd ever seen, but it seemed to do the job; Jack didn't look like he was overheating or burning at all. If Jack had have been able to see the Sandman he would've glared.

"I'm going to kill North," Jack cursed, his voice muffled. Then, louder, "You can let me go now."

"I could," Lleu agreed, but didn't.

"Will you?"

"Nope," she popped the 'p'.

"Why?" Jack whined.

"Because this is fun and I like annoying you," Lleu replied like it was obvious. "Also because I've known you for, like, a century or two and this is the first time I've been able to do this and your my little bro and I can't tell you how long I've waited to just smother you in hugs. Maybe I'll just hug you forever." she cooed smiling at him as she kissed his cheek and forehead.

"We both have jobs to do, you know," came the irritated reply.

"Not at the moment. So I figure that gives me at least three months. And it's not like the seasons won't change if we're not there."

A wordless groan erupted from where Jack's head was submerged in… whatever it was the suit was made of. "Sandy, help."

"Sandy's gone," Lleu told him. "He left a little while ago."

"What? Where?"

"Something about a camera?"

"SANDY!"