Frozen Love: a Jelsa Story

Conceal, Don't Feel

Elsa paced anxiously as the ice walls glowed red, reflecting her inner turmoil.  Jack hovered beside her, unseen, his chest tight with worry.  Just when Elsa seemed to be accepting her powers, Anna came searching for her sister and things started going wrong again.  The princess told Elsa that when she fled Arendell, she set off an eternal winter throughout the entire fjord.  There could be no true escape for Elsa as long as her powers were affecting others, and this knowledge sent her into a spiral of despair and dread. 
Ever since she’d been faced with that realization and had once more unintentionally lashed out at her sister, Elsa had started to close herself off once more.  The fear that her powers would always make her an outcast had wormed into her mind and grown there, fed by her guilt over pushing Anna away once again. Just when she had found somewhere she could belong, even if only by being all alone, her old life had come crashing back.
Elsa staggered, her knees giving out beneath her.  She slumped against the wall, still whispering the mantra that had become the root of the wall that she built around her magic.  It was to protect herself and others from the powers that she had learned to consider dangerous.  “Conceal, don’t feel...don’t feel….”
The words that she had muttered harsly to herself for so long trailed off into sobs as she pulled her knees to her chest and curled against the wall.  Jack felt his heart sinking as her sorrow sank into his very bones.  His first urge was to throw a snowball, to try to bring back the little girl that played in the snow with her sister, with her guardian watching over them, initiating the fun.  But he knew what Elsa truly needed at that moment and he had no idea how he could provide it.
He sat next to her against the wall, placing his staff on the ground.  Slowly, telling himself that nothing would happen, he cautiously stretched a hand towards her.  His fingers gently caressed her cheek, but at once he drew them back in shock.  He shouldn’t be able to touch her if she didn’t believe in him.  He didn’t know how that could be possible after so long of people simply passing through him as if he was a ghost.  Elsa must have felt it, because she suddenly stopped crying and raised her head.  Jack held his breath, waiting, hoping that she would finally see him. 

Elsa looked around the room, searching for any possible source for the gentle touch she had felt on her cheek.  She saw no signs to indicate that someone was there, nor any open doorways or windows that a wind could pass through. 
She sighed, reasoning that it was probably just her imagination.  She had been without human contact for so long, that perhaps in her desperation she’d brought back long-buried memories of her mother and father kissing her goodnight.  She stood shakily, cursing herself silently for giving in to her emotions.  She had to be stronger than that if she was going to keep her powers in check.  She couldn’t let anyone see that she was afraid, especially not Anna. 
Biting her lip to steel herself, she took a step forward, and her foot bumped against something on the floor.  Glancing down, she saw what appeared to be a small ice sculpture, like the one she had found before.   Kneeling down, she picked it up with shaking fingers.  It was a tiny rose, the ice the same shade of blue as Elsa’s own eyes.  The petals were so elegantly captured that it looked like someone had frozen a real flower at its prime.  Tiny thorns that barely pierced her skin alternated up the stem.  The petals curved around the center of the flower, where was shaped a tiny heart, smooth as a river stone.  Frozen dewdrops lingered on the tips of the petals and the single leaf.
Elsa was enthralled by its beauty and simplicity.  She no longer wondered who kept making such beautiful sculptures or if it was purely her subconscious, but was simply grateful to have such a beautiful thing to comfort her.  A single tear slid down her cheek, but this time it was a tear of joy.