Chapter Text
On the day when Jack Skellington hijacked Christmas, Santa Clause flew over Halloween Town, temporarily turning its weather into winter. No one in Halloween Town had ever seen snow or ice before that day, and they were enthralled.
Yuuri was still quite young when it happened. He slid onto the frozen lake and let the ice carry him. It seemed like a new kind of magic at the time. The ice was so smooth and he could glide across it in a unique style of dance.
Yuuri had spent all of his life in or near water. His parents were river spirits. Yuuri was born in water and lived in water. He’d seen it flow, stand, rot, boil, evaporate, rain down...but he’d never seen it turn to ice. Until that day when another holiday’s ruler flew over his town and covered it in snow.
As he danced across the ice, he was happier and more excited than he’d ever been about anything in his life. He wanted to do it forever. He wondered if he could think of a way to do it more gracefully. He often slipped as his feet were wide and long, designed for swimming, but he thought, perhaps, he could glide more effectively if he could minimize that surface. Some of Yuuri’s neighbors stuck little frozen pumpkins to their feet, but Yuuri thought it would be more effective if he could find a way to glide over the ice on something sharper. Some sort of blade, perhaps.
The possibilities were endless, and Yuuri was filled with excitement.
Alas, the winter in Halloween Town didn’t last. Santa’s spell soon wore off, and the ice melted. The weather never changed in Halloween, always remaining slightly brisk, but never cold enough for water to freeze.
Yuuri cried for several hours, sitting at the side of the lake that had been covered in ice only hours earlier.
When his parents found him and he told them of what had happened through sobs and tears, they told him that if something made him this happy, he should find a way to get it back. Yuuri was a witch after all, inheriting his magical abilities from his grandparents. He was young and had little control of his magic, but it was still inside of him. Surely, if Santa had a spell that could freeze a lake, Yuuri could find one as well.
And he did. It took him almost all the way to next Halloween, but he found a spell that could turn water into ice. He’d asked every witch in town, he went through every book and visited every magical shop, but in the end he found a spell that could turn liquids into solids.
The spell had initially been created as a weapon. It was meant to freeze blood inside living beings. But with a few adjustments, it could turn water into ice as well.
When Yuuri was ready, his parents found a nice secluded spot in the woods and created a new lake just for him. It was shallow, but he didn’t need depth.
He gathered the ingredients and read the spell. The mixture in his pot turned dark blue and began to glow. He poured it out into the new lake and held his breath.
It didn’t take long. The water turned the same dark blue, crackled slightly, and solidified.
Yuuri let out a sigh of relief. He had his ice.
It was a long time still before Yuuri found the perfect way to dance over the ice. He tried many different things, from knives glued to books to sharpened rocks attached to wooden planks. In the end, he found that what worked best was 2 blades stuck very closely together. They dug into the ice, but still allowed for decent balance.
Yuuri’s parents made him special shoes from sturdy river weeds, and he attached the blades to the shoes with a combination of slime and magic.
After that, all there was to do was learn to dance on them. Yuuri knew it would take a long time, but he didn’t mind. Halloween creatures were virtually immortal. He had decades, if not centuries to master this new wonderful thing that he had now. Maybe some day he would tire of it, but maybe he wouldn’t. Either way, it filled his existence with the kind of passion that simply looking over the river or preparing for yet another Halloween never really did.
Now he had something that no one else in town even knew existed.
Years went by as Yuuri practiced and practiced and practiced gliding across the ice. Sometimes he had to renew the spell after the ice became too uneven from his blades. The magic layered over itself, becoming stronger and expanding, and soon much of the woods around the lake turned the same glowing dark blue. The leaves on the trees around the lake became circular, with sharp edges and intricate designs in the middle. They all seemed to be different from each other. Whenever Yuuri tried to hold one, it would melt in his hands.
In Christmas Town, they called them ‘snowflakes’, but Yuuri didn’t know that. He just called them Blue Magic Leaves.
The blue glowing forest eventually attracted attention of Halloween’s other inhabitants, and Yuuri’s secret was soon discovered. Someone told Jack that there was a glowing forest at the edge of town and a boy who solidified a lake and danced on it with blades strapped to his feet.
Jack went to check and found Yuuri dancing across the frozen lake.
He was mesmerized. Hiding behind a tree, he watched as Yuuri carved circles and loops into the ice. He wasn’t just gliding around aimlessly. It was a dance, choreographed to perfection. At one point Yuuri jumped up into the air, spun around his own axis, then landed back on the ice so gracefully that Jack could barely suppress a gasp.
This reminded him of his first visit to Christmas Town – the feeling of seeing something new, something he’d never even known existed, something utterly beautiful.
Jack loved the macabre and darkness of his hometown as much as anyone. It had its own kind of beauty if you knew where and how to look. But sometimes seeing the same thing for centuries could become boring. Sometimes one wanted a different kind of beauty.
That’s why Jack had once fallen in love with Christmas. That’s why he couldn’t look away as Yuuri danced across the frozen lake, unaware of being watched.
When Yuuri finished his performance, Jack came out of his hiding place and banged his phalanges against each other happily.
“That was so beautiful!” he yelled. “What was that? What’s it called? Where did you learn to do that? Did you visit Christmas Town? How did you make all this?”
He stepped onto the ice and immediately slipped, spreading out his limps in a spider-like shape to avoid crashing down into a heap of bones. He stepped off the ice and walked around the lake instead, admiring the frozen trees around it.
“I...” Yuuri said, terrified of having been caught. And by the ruler of the town no less. “It doesn’t really have a name. I just...dance,” he said quietly. “My parents made the lake and I made it like this with a spell.”
“Oh!” Jack said happily, his face expressing excitement vividly despite the lack of eyes or skin. “You’re from the Yutopia river, right? You’re the river spirits’ son?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“That’s wonderful!” Jack said. “How long have you been...dancing?”
“A few years. Since that time when Sandi Claws made it cold for a day.”
“Oh yes, yes, of course!” Jack spun around, knocking a few Blue Magic Leaves off the trees. “Everyone should see you! Would you like to dance for the town? We could make it a show! It’s so beautiful, it’s not fair you’re here all by yourself and no one gets to enjoy such beauty!”
Panic shot through Yuuri as he thought of the whole town watching him dance. He’d only ever done it on his own. He had no idea if he could do it in front of everyone. What if he failed? He didn’t always perform well under pressure.
“I’m...I’m not sure,” he said quietly.
“Think about it!” Jack said. Then he was momentarily distracted by a particularly fascinating leaf. He touched it and it fell to the ground, causing him to grin in amusement. Then he looked at Yuuri again. “If you don’t want to, that’s alright. But it’d be so much fun for the town! We could all use something new.”
He smiled, then walked away, disappearing into the woods.
For a while, Yuuri just stood in place. Eventually, he started moving again, gliding across the ice with no real purpose or plan. He thought that maybe the rest of the town wouldn’t be as excited about Yuuri’s dancing as Jack was. But then again, many of Halloween’s inhabitants tended to be excited about whatever Jack told them to be excited about.
At the very least, Jack gave Yuuri an opportunity. He didn’t have to dance for the town if he didn’t want to. But maybe if he wanted to...he could.
That night, after he was done at the lake, he returned home to the Yutopia river to rest. His parents warmed up the water for him so he could relax. His mother brought him dinner.
“Mom,” he said, “do you think I should skate for the town? Jack asked me too.”
His mother smiled at him kindly and sat next to him.
“Do you want to?”
“I don’t know.”
She nodded in understanding. Yuuri didn’t just inherit magic from his grandparents. Anxiety and self-doubt also ran in the family.
“Think of it this way,” she said with a soft smile, “if you didn’t do it, would you regret it, or would it be a relief?”
Yuuri thought about it, but it didn’t really help.
“Ah...both?”
“Hmm, well, then...imagine that you rejected the offer. Don’t say anything to Jack yet, but imagine that you said no and that you won’t be doing it. Let the thought settle in your mind. Live with it for a few days if you need to. Then see if the regret or the relief are stronger.”
Yuuri wasn’t sure he could actually do that, but he could certainly try.
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Anytime, love.”
After finishing his dinner, Yuuri settled down in the warm water and relaxed, trying not to think of the upcoming decision just yet. After a while, he fell asleep. As he slid down under the surface of the water, his gills opened up and he slept peacefully at the bottom of the river.