"Winter, not yet," Autumn said. "WINTER!"

"What?" Winter said, groaning. Winter had silvery hair and icy blue eyes. Her skin was pale and a scowl was usually etched on her face.

Autumn had chestnut-brown skin, striking red hair, and brown eyes. He sighed. "It's not time for the Snow yet, Winter."

"That's not fair," Winter whined. "You've made it later than usual on purpose!"

"Stop speaking nonsense," Autumn sniffed.

"Well, it's true!" Winter growled. "I don't see why I can't just send down a couple snowflakes."

"Would you two stop fighting?" Spring asked. She had curly, light brown hair that was always messy, and bright green eyes. Freckles swarmed her face, making it a darker skin tone than the rest of her body.

"It really is quite annoying," Summer added. He had wavy blonde hair and deep blue eyes that sometimes seemed a stormy gray when he was angry.

"WINTER!" Autumn screeched. "Stop. It. Now!"

Winter slunk away, scowling. "You are so mean," she muttered.

"The people don't have all of their firewood yet," Autumn scolded her. "By sending a Snow, they could freeze."

"Humans are overrated, anyway," Winter said. "I don't see what the big deal is."

"Winter, try and understand," Spring said gently. "It is our responsibility to give humans the right seasons at the right times. We could get in huge trouble if we didn't."

"I never liked this job!" Winter yelled. "I'm giving them a Snow, whether you like it or-"

"Winter, stop goofing around," Autumn hissed. "Mother Nature will kill us if you don't stop doing this."

"Well, to be completely honest, Mother Nature wouldn't KILL us-" Summer started.

Autumn glared at him. Summer bit his lip and stopped talking.

"Anyway," Autumn continued, "if you have a problem with your job, you can always quit, but Mother Nature wouldn't be very happy about that."

Winter sighed. "Fine," she mumbled. "I'll wait."

"Good," Autumn said. "I'm sure you'll only have to wait a month or so more, Winter."

"Joy," Winter muttered sarcastically.

Summer grinned. "Anyway, Winter, if you're having any hard feelings, ya know, you can always come to me! 'Cause I can give only some of the world summer. I don't get to do this town for a while! And, think about it. You get to give a bunch of the world winter, ya know?"

Winter rolled her eyes. "Okay, Mister Happy-Forever," she said. "But I don't need to talk to you. Got that?"

Spring sighed. "Why can't we just all get along? Aren't we supposed to be friends?"

"No," Winter said.

"Yes," Autumn said, glaring at Winter.

"We are friends," Summer protested.

Spring smiled. "I think if we try a bit better, we can get along."

"You," Winter grumped, "are so cheesy."

Autumn mumbled something under his breath and got back to work.

Summer grinned. "We can do this! Group hug, guys!"

Only Spring gave him a half-hearted hug.

Winter stuck out her tongue in disgust, and turned to Autumn. "You know, that town's really looking nice there... And it would look nicer if I sent, maybe, well... A little Frost to help it out?"

"Don't try it," Autumn sighed. "They aren't ready yet."

Winter pouted. "Fine! But that means I get to give some of Alaska a blizzard, right?"

Autumn glanced at her. "Do they have firewood, or some other kind of heating... Thingamajig?"

Winter had no idea. "Oh, yeah," she said. "Uh-huh. The place I'm thinking of, yeah, they have, um, a lot of heating options."

"Go on, then," Autumn said dismissively.

Winter slunk away to give Anchorage a blizzard. "Oh, yes," she whispered. "I'll give 'em one that'll last a while."

Summer sighed, and glanced at Spring. "Why don't the others like me?"

Spring smiled a bit. "Autumn's just grumpy because he hangs around Winter so much. And Winter... Well..."

"I heard that!" Winter and Autumn yelled at the same time.

Spring giggled. "Winter's still warming up to us."

Winter looked at the three other dragons around her. "Wait. I'm supposed to live with these losers for the rest of my long, long life?"

Star glared at her. "They are not LOSERS, Winter. They are the other dragons in your storm," he scolded. Then his smile turned wry. "Have fun, Winter." Before the she-dragon could say anything, Star was far away with one beat of his sparkling wings.

Winter turned back to the other three. "Hello, I guess. My name is Winter Flame, and I'm not really pleased to meet you but I'm not supposed to say that, even though I just did. I come from Frostbite. I am a PRINCESS in the Frostbite royal family, thank you, and you should acknowledge that." She tilted her chin up and glared down her snout at the three dragons before her.

The small, bouncy golden dragon - or should it be dragonet? - grinned from ear to ear as she said, "Nice to meet you, Winter! I'm Xiatian Yang, or Xia for short. It means 'Summer Sun' in my language! I come from southern Weiguo!" Her voice was positively bursting with happiness.

Winter tried that out on her tongue silently. Xiatian. Xia. Ugh. "How exactly do you pronounce that?"

Xiatian shrugged, her aquamarine eyes wide. "I don't know.......just say 'Xia'? Like...uh...stick your tongue like this, and hiss between your teeth...yeah...just like tha--wait! Winter!"

Winter had turned her head away with a snort. "I'm not embarrassing myself by making such undignified noises." She realised what she had just said and almost said sorry. Then she realised she still had her pride, and bit back her apology.

A brownish-red dragon with jade green eyes quickly rushed to Xiatian's side, worry in his eyes. "Xiatian, Xia, are you alright?"

With a stab of jealousy, Winter realised that the dragon could pronounce "Xiatian" perfectly.

Xiatian nodded, her eyes steely. "Winter Flame," she hissed through her teeth, bright demeanor immediately vanishing, "you can insult me, but never my language." Her eyes were cold.

Not expecting this, Winter nodded silently, ice-blue eyes wide.

The brownish-red dragon sighed in relief. "Good, at least you didn't fight him..." he said. Then he seemed to remember something and started, sitting up. "Oh! I almost forgot! Hello, everyone," he said shyly, edging closer to Xiatian. "My name is Efteraret Blade. In my language, that means Autumn Leaves... I come from Konge... I'm glad to have met you all... Oh, also, you can call me Efter if you want..." He hurriedly ducked his head, an embarrassed smile blossoming across his face.

Winter nodded curtly, "Nice to meet you...Efteraret..."

Xiatian's happy aura had returned and she beamed at Efteraret. "Nice to meet you, Efter, though I already know you, but I don't care, introductions are always fun!" Then she glared at Winter. "Unless they insult your language, of course. Then it's a bit... unpleasant." Her blue eyes carried an unspoken threat.

Winter began to believe there was more to this "dragonet" than she thought.

The last dragon of them all stepped forwards. "Greetings. My name is Vesna Olen, and I hail from Vochya," he said carefully, his green scales glinting in the light.

"Hi, Vesna! What does your name mean?" Xiatian asked curiously.

Vesna gave her a strange look but said, "'Vesna' means 'spring' and 'olen' means 'stag'."

Xiatian's eyes widened in understanding and she nodded furiously. "Okay, so your name means 'Spring Stag', right?" When Vesna nodded, Xiatian beamed. "Cool!"

Winter then stepped forward. "I think, in battle, it would be easier if we called each other 'Winter', 'Spring', 'Autumn', and 'Summer'... That way it will be shorter and it will take the enemy a while to figure out who is attacking." She looked around.

Efter was nodding, a pleased look on his face. Xiatian frowned for a while, contemplating the plan, then nodded too, albeit a bit more coldly. Vesna seemed to be considering it as well. Finally, the big green dragon gave his consent.

"Good," Winter said, pleased.

"Can we still call each other our real names?" Efteraret ventured nervously.

Xiatian snorted, eyeing Winter. Then she turned to Efteraret, instantly beaming. "Of course! I wouldn't give up my name for anything," she said, turning back to Winter to glare at her.

Winter just tilted up her chin and refused to reply, glaring right back regally.

Vesna, in the background, stayed silent, watching the exchanges with a humorous glint in his golden eyes. When the glaring contest continued, the big emerald dragon sighed and stepped in between the two.

"Listen, Winter - you need to learn how to control your pride. As you mentioned before, we are indeed going to be together for the rest of our lives, so you might as well accept that and try to get along." His voice held no argument, and Winter shrank away, watching as he turned to Xiatian.

"Xiatian, I appreciate your desire to uphold your language's honor - but you must understand, I'm sure Winter didn't mean to insult your language. It was her pride that was the barrier to her trying further and to her not apologizing. Please forgive her," Vesna said. Then he gave a final nod and retreated into the shadows.

Winter gave the big Vochyan dragon an incredulous look as Xiatian growled but shrank back, settling down next to Efteraret, who gave all three of them weird looks of awe.

The rest of her life was going to be veeeery interesting with these three dragons...

_____________________________________________________________

This was random, and now I have a whole new AU.

Spring twirls her hair and coyly gazes over her drink at Fall, who likes the attention but doesn't want to start anything new right now. Meanwhile, Summer kneads Winter's thigh with her hand and whispers something urgently in his ear, but the older man pushes her away with a thin, white hand and goes to the heater to warm himself up.

The women had planned this seduction for months, debating how best to convince Winter to give love one more try, how best to overcome Fall's fear of commitment. But when the men proved to be steadfast in their solitude, Spring and Summer decide to transfer their affections to Sun and Rain instead.

“Winter, you’re so long and hard”

sighed Summer between

Impassioned trusts

As they danced, tethering long and back.

Winter’s a keeper; raw, intense

Unafraid of opinion

Dark and black

But Winter strokes a timely dame

With softer whispers and a timid

Smile. She awakens

Green and faintly frosted

Meets Winter in his endless night

Singing in his sordid seduction

He rumbles as he slides inside her

Spring-green, afresh, a new man.

Sometimes, alone, he forgets Spring

He dreams of Summer and her endless days

He hears her singing in her Summer rain

He feels her stripping her fresh leaves and

Parting wild bushes for Autumn to paint

A vileness only made viler because

Jealousy had no home between them

He dreams of her and she dreams of him

But the two never again did meet