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Jack Frost lands on the roof of a thatched house and looks out at the quiet village before him. His bandaged hands catch the light as he moves them in a fluid motion. He has learnt that when he gets like this, so full of ice and the cold, he cannot touch anything without freezing it. The bandages help keep his magic under control. Where they go so does ice. Winter is finally here. By the time he is done every rooftop and street corner is icy with frost. The smell that surrounds him fills his lungs and revives the dregs of exhaustion still pulling at his bones. He has been doing this for 300 hundred years and although spreading the cold and the fun is as rewarding and exciting and a little chaotic as ever the last few years have felt weighed down by something. It eats away at his conscious, makes his happiness brief, his wonder nonexistent.
He had asked the moon, his friend and companion through it all, for guidance but the celestial body has not given much more hint than the ocean, over which it shines brighter every month at its fullest. With a heavy sigh Jack moves to the next village, town, city. An endless cycle non of the other guardians can help him with. They do not have ice running in their veins. They do not have snow falling from their eyelashes. They are not winter.
He is lucky he supposes that he has days, weeks, to spread winter across the world unlike his fellow guardians but somehow he never feels like he has enough time. Finally he gets to the last of his journey. One of the most famous city’s in the world and one of his favourites to transform. New York.
He begins on top of the Empire State building, sliding down it with a smile as bright as snow, his stick scraping gently against the glass. The building is already glistening with frost and he can’t help but run a finger through the blue sheen. It creates beautiful patterns that he admires for a moment before covering them. When he reaches the bottom his feet leave a mark on the concrete and as he walks frost trails him, sticking between the cracks in the pavement and freezing the puddles that at least a hundred people have stepped in just that morning.
Someone grumbles about the cold, another takes a deep breath as it leaks into their lungs. A man fixes the scarf around his boyfriend’s neck and it makes Jack’s heart clench. For everyone’s complaining about the season they are all more loving and slowed down and sweet. The city that rushes everything calms a fraction during this time. Hardly noticeable to all the patrons but he who has seen it for centuries notices every year.
Just as he turns a corner already reaching for the next skyscraper he hears a shout. And then a voice like frozen earth and crashing waves pierces the world.
“Get the fuck off me.”
Jack Frost stops in his tracks, stares up at the sky, at the moon he knows hides there, and he knows. He just knows. This is it. What he’s been looking for. So he goes towards the voice, towards the spark and finds his soul.
***
Percy Jackson is having a shitty day. A shitty week in fact but there’s no time to dwell on the past. He steps out of the subway station and into the horrible, rainy streets of the city he loves, the city he calls home. His only destination is home, to his mother, and warmth. But the trip from long Island is a long one and he has to trudge through the streets of Manhattan first. As he passes the Empire State Building, scowling at its top, he is yanked by a claw and his first thought is “Of fucking course.”
He is slammed into the cold concrete and looks up to see a truly vile creature standing over him. He can’t think of its name because finals have fried his brain at this point in time he doesn’t care. He just wants this to be over with.
“Hello Perseus Jackson. Bold of you to walk by Olympus. You’ve gotten sloppy.”
He doesn’t give them the time of day. “Get the fuck off me.”
They cackle and it sounds like markers on paper. Grating. “You are weak Perseus. I cannot believe you fall so easily.”
“He said get off him.”
Percy can’t turn his head to see who’s there but the voice sounds like the first winter snow, sounds like cracking ice, and he falls in love.
The monster freezes above him, beady eyes looking to their left. “Who are you?” It hisses.
The stranger doesn’t bother with an answer. “Get. Off.”
The monster just snarls and proceeds to drag a claw across Percy’s throat. Green eyes roll in annoyance but before he can fish riptide from his pocket the monster is a statue of ice.
“I told you to get off.” The stranger is so quiet and so much closer.
He moves to look at them and is struck stupid by their beauty. Hair as white as the moon and eyes as startling blue as the ocean. Their skin is a pale contrast to Percy’s own deep brown but it is beautiful all the same. And as the stranger moves he swears the light makes their veins glitter.
“Who are you?” The monster is long forgotten.
“Jack Frost.” Blue eyes flash with…. something and then a pale hand is reaching out and hauling him up.
They fall into each other as he steadies himself. Cold hands, even through the bandages, reach out and grab his arms and then they are looking each other in the eyes and Percy can’t breathe.
“Like the stories?” It is the only coherent thought he has.
A wry smile quirks that beautiful face, “Like the legends.” He winks.
“Thank you.” He gestures to the still frozen monster, “For the help.”
“This a common occurrence?”
He just shrugs, no energy to explain his life and the chaos he endures.
“What’s your name?”
“Percy. Percy Jackson.”
“Pretty.” Jack mumbles and then winces as if he didn’t mean to say that out loud.
“Why are you here?”
“Spreading the winter cheer.” The smirk lights up his face and puts a twinkle in his blue eyes that leave him speechless.
He stares unable to say anything, unable to do anything and it is a mistake. Because suddenly he feels a sharp sting in his side. He buckles over, grabbing onto anything in order to stay on his feet. Hands come around his waist to keep him still and when they remove they come away with dark blood.
“You and your friend will die for this Perseus Jackson.” The monster had escaped its cage of ice and there is only malice flashing in its tiny red eyes.
Percy doesn’t give it a chance to touch Jack before he is pulling riptide out of his pocket and slashing it into the monster. It doesn’t crumble to dust immediately and it pours panic into his veins. If only he knew what this godsdamn monster was called, he could remember how to kill it.
A blast of ice shoots the monster in its chest and he turns to see Jack with a fierce look in his eyes and a wooden staff crackling with cold magic.
The monster is rendered immobile for a brief second and Percy takes it to stab and slash until his bronze sword hits a particular point on its back and it crumbles to dust before them.
“Wow,” Jack looks at him with awe and power and sparks.
Percy smiles his troublemaker smile and crumples to the floor, clutching the stab wound still gushing with blood.
“Percy!” He hears a shout, and then he succumbs to the darkness.
When he awakes sometime later the first thing he sees is the moon. Bright and full in the sky. It reminds him of the trips to Montauk. And then icy blue eyes move into his vision and everything else falls away.
“You’re awake,” There is relief lacing every syllable.
“I’m sure thanks to you?” He looks down and sees bandages, matching exactly to the one’s on his saviors hands, wrapped around his torso. “Sorry for the scare. Usually people just dumb me in water and I get fixed.”
“You have magic like me?” Jack frowns, curiosity flitting across his face.
“You could say that.” He looks around and realizes they're in some sort of cave, snow cushioning them. Weirdly, he doesn’t feel the cold. “Watch this.” And then he is drawing the snow up, turning it to water and letting it dance across the space before splashing the white-haired boy in the face.
“Hey,” He scrunches his nose. Before Percy can react a snowball is whirling towards him, hitting him square in the chest.
He gasps in outrage, “Oh I’m going to get you for that!”
And although he has to take the time to form the snowball he manages to pack it tight and throw it right at that soft blue hoodie.
“Oh you’re in for it now.” Jack’s voice is deadly, but there is fun running through it like falling snowflakes.
Seeing the gleam in those blue eyes Percy attempts to scoot away but one small twist if his body and he is crying out in pain. Jack immediately stops and rushes over to him.
“Guess I forgot about this in the interest of revenge, huh?” He attempts to laugh, but pain still rings through his body.
Blue eyes fill with concern. “Can I try something?”
He takes half a breath to think about it before nodding slowly and leaning back. Pale hands move gently to rest on the bandaged area and then he feels a slight tingle under his skin. It is a pleasant feeling and he looks down curiously to see soft blue light emitting from where they touched.
“What are you doing?” He asks in awe.
“You said water heals you. I can make ice.”
As he says that the cold sets in and Percy winces as he feels it seep into his skin. But then it fades and a lovely sensation takes over his body and he suddenly feels like he can climb a mountain or swim across an ocean.
“Wow.” He looks at his wound, no completely healed, and then up at the beautiful being.
Jack moves to take his hands away and Percy grabs them in his own.
“Thank you.”
Emeralds and sapphires meet in a look of pure electricity and time simply ceases to exist. They are two people with dreams in their heads and water in their veins and it feels like the universe was created just so they could meet. They are infinite.
They are alive.