Always You

xxxv. Training

Elsa

All my thoughts chased each other in circles, worry after worry piling on me and drowning out everyone's words until I was sitting on the floor, my knees pulled to my chest as I sniffed out of self pity. How could this be fixed? Obviously, it couldn't. I couldn't go home, I could never see my sister again, I wouldn't hear my niece's first words, I would never set foot in my kingdom again. I was now as much of an outcast as Jack had been for all those years. I had no one. I sensed rather than heard the Moon's voice in my head, telling me to calm down. He told me he wouldn't have let me become a Guardian if it wasn't something he thought needed to be done. Still, I questioned it. 

Before I knew it, Jack was sitting by me. He put an arm around me.

"It's been three days, Elsa." He spoke gently, shocking me. I had been sitting here for three days? Just wallowing in self-pity and wondering how I could get past this, not moving a muscle, not eating, not even sleeping for seventy-two hours? I seemed insane. 

"Why?" I whispered to him, my hoarse voice cracking from the tears in my voice. All I wanted was the best of both worlds; my family and my love. It was clear now that it couldn't be that way and that I had no choice in which one I would get.

"I... I thought it would be what you wanted." He spoke, blue eyes grazing the ground and not meeting mine. I knew it was true, knew that he hadn't meant to hurt me, but I didn't understand him sometimes. He often made it painfully obvious that he still had the mentality of the seventeen-year-old he had been when he became Jack Frost. 

"Jack, you have to talk to people about these things. What you want isn't always the right thing, nor is it what everyone else wants." I tried to explain but his face just fell.

"I knew it, you hate me now." He spoke softly and I pulled his chin up so his eyes could meet mine. 

"Jackson Overland Frost," I spoke to him, "I could never hate you. I love you." I told him honestly, crashing my lips onto his. My first kiss as a Guardian was a swirling whirlwind of sensation, something I hadn't expected. The heat in my stomach and cheeks grew and we continued to kiss, my eyes fluttering behind their closed lids, as my happiness completely sky-rocketed. He pulled away.

"Intoxicating, right?" He asked me with a smile. It slightly improved my mood that he was okay now, and I knew I would have to live with being a Guardian. It was the only option now, I just had to cope with it. I knew I would miss my family and I knew it would be nearly impossible to forget them, but things would work themselves out eventually. They had to.

I stood up, my muscles surprisingly unsore and decided to see if I could discover my Guardian powers. I hopped lightly, feeling oddly like it was the thing to do. I sky-rocketed into the air, landing on the very tip of my toe. Continuing with my instincts, I performed a few perfectly executed flips and twirls, landing lithely before looking around. I kept pushing things until I was breathing too hard to continue, sitting on the floor in awe of myself. I had never thought myself able to do anything like that.

"What's your center?" The Moon asked me impatiently, but I didn't have an answer. I still didn't know who I was at the core of my being.

"Come here," Tooth spoke to me when I had calmed down, lightly leading me to a large mirror. I had been afraid to look at myself, knowing it would look nothing like the girl I knew. Not surprisingly, I was right. Surprisingly, though, I loved what I saw.

I was taller than I had been, thinner and more muscular. My freckles were gone, my skin snow white and flawless. My usually held back hair grew to my waist, hanging in a long and beautiful curtain. Dare I say it, I looked stunning. I couldn't absorb it. I put a hand to the mirror, but as soon as I did it cracked. The crack soon spread, leading the floor length glass to shatter into a million pieces on the floor. I went to jump back, somehow landing myself across the room though I had moved no more than an inch. 

"Your powers will take a lot of work." Tooth assured me, gesturing for Baby Tooth and some other fairies to pick up the broken shards. I sighed, running an ice-cold hand through my silky hair. This was going to take a lot of adjustment.... 

Jack

She wasn't used to her powers. Every move she made was multiplied a million times, and she was creating more trouble than anyone could keep up with. She cried more than anything for the first three days, and then things started changing. She was learning how to control her powers quicker than any of us would have imagined, surely much quicker than she had learned ot control her previous ice powers. She was magnificent. 

Her beauty had become something so exquisite, though I had thought her beautiful before the change she was now a true sight to behold. She was everything I had ever dreamed about and more, but still no one knew her center. This foothold into Guardian-ship was knowing your center, and I knew more than anyone how hard it could be to find that. I had fought my entrance into the Guardians so hard, never wanting this amazing thing that now I wouldn't give up for anything. I knew she would grow to feel this way, too, she had to. I didn't know what I would do if she didn't.

She wouldn't talk to me. Every time I glanced her way she would meet my eyes and then look away. She wanted to be with me, to have me hold her hand through some of the most difficult things she would ever face, but she was too angry to let herself. Though she had tried to forgive me for it, I knew she still just felt betrayed by me, and I didn't blame her. I would have been hurt, too. I just wish I knew the words to use to help her, to make things okay. 

About a week after she had arrived, Bunny came into my room and decided we needed to talk. 

"Jack, why did you turn Elsa?" He asked, concern playing on his face, the very face that had once frozen in hatred whenever we were in the same vicinity.

"I needed her, Bunny. She's my everything and I couldn't stand to lose her. I thought she would be happy." I told him, tears pricking my eyes again as I thought of the horrible mistake I had made. Bunny nodded, trying to understand thought I knew he wouldn't.

"But why not just ask her, mate? Why do something without her knowing, 'specially something as big as this?" He continued.

"Because I thought she wanted it but couldn't admit it to herself. I thought that once she realized we could be together forever and save the lives of children around the world that she would be happy and she would want it as much as I do." I explained, knowing I was in the wrong. No matter how many angles the situation was looked at from, I was the one in the wrong and I knew that. I accepted it.

"Jack, you're young. I know you're over three hundred years old, but you're young mentally. You have no idea what the world really has in store for anyone, but I know what it's like to think you do. Jack, this was the worst thing you could have done. She's never going to able to forgive you, but she will be able to live with it. She won't leave you. But you need to fix this, apologize to her." Bunny continued, I sighed.

"I have, though, she doesn't want to hear it!" I cried in exasperation. Why didn't anyone see what I meant? She didn't want to forgive me, she couldn't even look at me.

"You have to sit her down and talk like a man. Just tell her how sorry you are, and admit it was a mistake and just let her know you're there for her. This is a big change." Bunny said, finality in his voice as he stood to leave. As he left the room, I sat with my head in my hands wondering when I would ever be able to stop ruining things.

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Hi, guys! I'm so sorry it took forever to update, I've been crazy busy and had a touch of writer's block. Votes & comments would be super appreciated and thanks for all the reads! (: