Jack & Elsa ✓

Happy Birthday, Elsa

"Eighteen now, right?" Jack asked with a smile.

"Yes," I murmured, glancing away from him and folding my gloved hands up in the cloth of my skirt. It was my eighteenth birthday and Jack was the only one who seemed to have remembered. Anna had said something , I think, at dinner, but with our parent's death still so heavy over our heads we both were still grieving so much that nearly that was all I could think about lately - forget my birthday.

"You should have done something today," Jack continued. "You know, to celebrate. You are the princess after all."

"No," I replied, picking at a loose thread on my gloves, "I didn't want to. It's...it's just too much. I can't."

"Hey," he said, reaching out and placing a hand over mine, "Just stop."

I glanced over at him and immediately found his icy blue eyes looking at me. His hair was in jagged peaks as always, glittering like snow in the faint moonlight drifting through my room. His staff leaned against the wall near the window, which was half open. The cold winter air blew into my room, and even though I was wearing a light summer dress, I barely felt the cold.

Perhaps that was how I'd come to get my powers, because my birthday was in the deepest time of winter.

Jack smiled at me as our eyes met, but a moment later his gaze dropped down to my gloved hands. Even though I normally took them off at the end of each day in the safety of my room, today I'd been in danger of icing things over that I was afraid to remove them.

"You don't have to be so afraid," he said, tugging gently at the fingertips of my gloves. "It's not a bad thing, your power. Just because you made one mistake doesn't mean it's going to happen again."

"You don't understand, Jack," I said, my voice nearly a sob. "You didn't see what the trolls said - what they showed me. I'm dangerous...I can't even control it!"

"You don't have to control it," he said, as one of my gloves came off into his hand. I shuddered instinctively at the sensation of air on my now bare hand, clenching my fingers into a fist. "Winter isn't something that can be tamed," he continued, pulling off my other glove, and then taking my hands in his.

I glanced at him again, finding that he was already looking at me. "You can't be...shouldn't be...tamed, Elsa. No one should."

"I...I can't," I whispered, pulling my hands out of his and standing up. Snowflakes started to whirl through my room as I wrapped my arms about myself and started to pace the length of my carpet. "If the kingdom finds out about this, about me - Jack, they'll call it sorcery. Call me a witch. Monster. They can't understand...they can't know."

"But is keeping this a secret the best way?" Jack asked, "What if it's worse than just telling the truth?" I felt him come up behind me, and a moment later his hand came down on my shoulder. "Elsa, you can't live like this. No one can."

"I have to," I said, holding my hands out in front of me. Frost and tendrils of ice crawled up my skin as I felt the air in my room turn even colder. "I can't hurt anyone else, Jack. I can't hurt Anna again."

Jack was silent for a moment, and in the silence I felt and heard the wind pick up both in my room and outside. Felt the sting of snowflakes against my skin. Whatever I felt inside affected the storms outside. Like I was a storm.

This was me...my power...and I couldn't stop it. I was a danger to anyone.

"Elsa, stop," Jack's voice broke through the sound of the wind, and he turned me around to face him as his other hand came down on my other shoulder. He gave me a little shake. "Your fear is just making this worse."

"I can't not be afraid!" I said, my voice nearly a wail as I held my hands up, fingers still covered with frost. "Just look at me, Jack! I can't stop being afraid because there's just so much about me that's frightening!"

I could feel tears stinging at the corners of my eyes, and I turned my face away, squeezing my eyes shut.

I couldn't cry. Not here. Not in front of anyone or ever.

"Elsa," Jack said, his voice quiet. I felt his hand come up under my chin; turn my face back to look at him once more. I blinked my eyes open and bit the inside of my bottom lip to keep it from trembling. "Just..." he took a breath, seeming to hesitate as if not knowing what to say or do.

But then he sighed, and suddenly leaning forward, kissed me on the cheek.

For once, his skin didn't feel cold, but where his lips touched my skin seemed almost burningly hot and warmth spread through me. I blinked up in confusion up at him, my hand flying up to press against my cheek, almost like I was holding his kiss in place.

A gust of wind swept through my room suddenly, which surprised me because until then I hadn't realized how quiet it had become, and he floated backwards with the wind to land on the ledge of my window. He grabbed his staff and turned to go, but then just as he was about to disappear into the night, he turned back. That little smile was on his face again - the one I knew was meant just for me.

"Happy birthday, Elsa," he said, and then was gone, leaving me standing there in the middle of a room full of snowflakes suspended in the air, my hand still pressed against my cheek.