[Jack Frost — always so sure of himself, always so brash; positively the consciousness of arrogance in the bodily form — is taken back by the sincerity of the confession.]
[Still, he’s good at concealing his emotions, especially if it grants him an opportunity to give to others.]
❝But hey, you’re great! Unique, like this snowflake here —❞
[And he conjures one up from his fingertips like it’s nothing because it really isn’t; no more harder than eating or walking for him.]
❝Special with all your quirks, specifically made to be you. So you, Grey Face, should be happy in your own skin.❞
[Never had the legend heard those words spoken in all of the centuries he’s roamed this world with snow white hair and a staff. Believing is power, he knows, especially for his kind who are invisible without it. But to be asked such a question leaves him in awe, gives him hope in thinking he’s not the only one who feels unimportant; that Guardians aren’t the only ones to carry this hardship.]
Elsa looked out of her window at the new fallen snow. She was extremely glad to see a natural winter that she didn’t cause. All of the children were running out of their homes to go out and make snow angels, snowmen, and start snowball fights. Elsa smiled fondly, remembering how she and Anna would play like that. Sometimes, in the middle of July, thanks to her powers. The kingdom was filled with the smell of fresh snow and the laughter of children, but something seemed wrong.
This was her first real winter as Queen. She was supposed to feel fulfilled, ecstatic, excited. However, something seemed wrong.
Perhaps it was because she was alone in the palace. Anna had gone out with Kristoff for the day, and Olaf didn’t keep much company. Other than them, what friends did she have? Growing up, she hadn’t had many friends in the first place. After the incident, she had spent the weeks in her room, by herself, just waiting. Learning. Concealing. Although, she did remember one friend.
He had come to her on an early December’s day, while Anna was studying and Elsa had decided to go out and play. She was just learning about her powers, and she wanted to learn to use them. However, she was a mess. The ice kept breaking, the snow would melt, and she would freeze trees solid. Suddenly, a boy came up behind her, much older than she was, and simply told her to focus. When she did, she completed her first full snowman with just a wave of her hand. She spent the whole day with the boy, learning that he had just the same powers she did. He was Old Man Winter himself; Jack Frost. But she knew she had to keep her friend a secret.
She would play and play with him, and her powers grew stronger and stronger. One day, though, when she hurt Anna, she knew they had gotten too strong. The rest of her days were spent in her room, and Jack never visited her again. There was no way he had been real; he was just her imagination. Her powers grew out of control.
Now that everything was the way it should be, she wondered.
Perhaps he hadn’t just been her imagination. After all, someone had to have made this winter’s first snowfall. She stepped out onto her balcony, feeling the cold air on her face. All she had to do was believe, just as she had done as a child. He would come back, she knew it.
“I believe in Jack Frost.”
It was barely more than a whisper, with her eyes closed. She opened them, expecting to see him sitting there with that stupid smug grin on his face, on the handrail of her balcony. But nothing. She knew he had only been her imagination. With a heavy sigh, she turned her back and took a few steps back inside, leaving the balcony doors open. Before she could go anywhere, however, a gust of cold air hit her back and she felt something there that she hadn’t before. Hope filled her heart as she looked back over her shoulders.
“J-Jack?”
Believe.
That’s all it took to awaken Old Man Winter. The boy – man, really, given his impressive age – without a home nor family, left only to endless snow. But Elsa, the energetic child who he had guided in earlier years, shared the same burden he did. Her isolation, her retreat from the world to hide her wicked curse, weakened Jack’s company around her. As icy as her powers were, nothing could compare to her frozen heart. Cold – cold words mixed with a harsh reality greeted him one day when her eyes glazed over his being and entertained themselves with the wall instead.
Jack Frost being ignored, unheard of, a nonentity in this vast universe. Wouldn’t be the first time. Nonetheless, it was his fate given by Tsar Lunar. Whether he liked it or not, moving on was a detail in the job description he couldn’t change. So he flew off into the wind on that timeless staff to new adventures, new places; all with the company of he and himself.
“I believe in Jack Frost.”
He could sense the faith miles away – planets, if necessary. It pumped an incongruous spark through his chilled veins and before he knew it, he was already soaring across oceans to that far off kingdom where his ice friend was waiting.
A single balcony left wide open in this chilly weather, practically as an invitation for him to swing in and cause mischief and mahem like always. Except when he floated over, it wasn’t Elsa. Well, by his definition wasn’t Elsa. The Elsa he knew was small, a single braid down her back and a black headband at the top of her head. This woman was tall, developed, and held exquisite posture; all physical attributes fit for a strong woman, not a little girl. However, in the instant that mysterious beauty spoke his name and turned to meet his form, he couldn’t humor any notions that believed this wasn’t Elsa.
Also in that same instant, it was as if he lost all of the cool points he had gathered up over the years, and Jack Frost losing anything cool was not something that happened often.
His throat, practically blazing only a moment ago, froze upon exposure. He didn’t mean for anyone to hear that, he was just letting off some steam. Privacy was one of the few perks that came with being a mystical legend, and made it so easy to forget that at times, he was an actual person that was heard by others like any ordinary human.
