Flash Fictions *Multiple Fandoms*

Dark (Rise of the Guardians) *Jack/OC*

Fandom: Rise of the Guardians.
Pairing: Jack Frost/OC (Catty Fawkes).
Side story to "This Means War".

"Hey, look, it looks like that town's had a blackout." Jack pointed down towards an area of complete black below them. "Let's go check it out!"

"Why?" Catty contested, though she slowed her progress through the air. "It looks creepy."

"Exactly! Come on!" Jack enthused.

Catty rolled her eyes, but she followed Jack's form as he descended towards the ground. As they got lower, he disappeared from view completely. The small town appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by empty countryside, and with no lights at all, it was blacker than black. She touched down onto the ground. Now that she was part of the black landscape, she couldn't discern Jack's figure, though she knew he was standing right beside her.

She conjured up a small fireball between her hands. The orange glow didn't do much to light up the surroundings, but it illuminated Jack's face in front of her, his trademark grin in place. She jumped. "What are you standing so close to me for?"

"Because I was waiting for that," he grinned. He looked around. "This place is so cool. It looks like something right out of a horror story... Look over here."

Catty directed the fireball's glow to where Jack was pointing. It brought an old set of wrought iron gates into light. They were bent and twisted, the two pieces barely fitting together, just about held in place by an old rusty latch that strained to hold them closed. Catty aimed the fireball up towards the wooden sign that sat crooked above them. Luton Cemetery.

"I am not going in there," she refused, knowing where Jack's train of thought was leading.

"Aww, why not?" Jack's grin grew even wider. "Are you scared?"

"I will be if I go in there with you!"

Jack laughed. "Fine, let's find something else. Come on, this way!"

Using the fireball like a lantern, Catty moved in the direction he pointed. Anything to get away from the eerie cemetery. As Jack walked with her, slightly ahead in his enthusiasm, he tapped his wooden staff back and forth, fabricating ice and snow out of nowhere, carpeting the ground with it. Catty scowled as she narrowly avoided slipping on a patch of ice.

"Do you have to do that everywhere you go?" she protested. Jack still got a kick out of trying to make her fall over. Though they weren't exactly rivals anymore, that didn't change his prankster's nature. That was why she hadn't wanted to go in the cemetery with him. He probably would have hid behind a gravestone and waited to jump out on her.

"Duh. This is what I do, remember?" Jack pointed out, as he skipped on ahead, leaving more winter in his wake. The blanket of fresh snow interrupted the black landscape, giving off an almost glow of its own. But if anything, the white in the darkness looked even creepier.

"Forget this," Catty muttered to herself.

Keeping the fireball in one hand, she tossed an array of fireworks and sparks up into the sky. The colours and lights lit up the surrounding area, eliminating all aspects of creepiness. Even the ground around her seemed to sparkle. Catty stopped, encouraging the fireball to grow a little in her hands, producing more light to see by. It reflected back off the snowy ground, every inch of the settled white powder giving off tiny, glittering lights, like facets of a diamond. It was crystals in the snow. It was beautiful.

Catty stared at it in awe. Jack turned and trudged back when he saw that she'd stopped. He smiled. "Do you like it?"

"It's beautiful!" Catty exclaimed. "I've never seen snow like that before."

"It's because it's frost on top of snow," Jack explained. "I stopped doing that a while ago, because no one ever cared. Kids just wanna play in snow and adults tend to hate it, because it stops them getting to work on time. Everyone would just trudge through and never notice."

"That's a shame," said Catty sincerely, still staring. "It really is beautiful."

"Then maybe I'll do it every once in a while." Jack cheekily tapped the end of her nose, his cold fingertip making her jump again. He grinned. "Just for you."

Close to, Catty could see that there was frost in Jack's white hair and even his eyelashes too. In the contrast of dark and the glow from the fireball, he glittered just like the snow did. Catty smiled. Maybe the dark wasn't as sinister as she'd thought. With just that little bit of light, you could make something truly beautiful out of it.