Chapter Text
The thing of it was, Jack wasn’t looking to actually pair up with anyone.
He’d gone on the stupid site because after he’d accidentally iced up the living room again, his mother had mentioned “finding someone to handle this” and Jack had figured she was annoyed enough that he should do something about this. (It turns out she’d meant someone to handle the eventual flooding, not someone who could evaporate it all up using their own superpower.)
Still, Jack had signed up to find a heat-man before he clarified with her, someone to melt things he accidentally frozen, but of course he hadn’t seen anyone immediately and then he’d forgotten about it.
Because everyone knows that a power match-up is not just about finding complementary powers. There’s personality tests and temperament evaluations and, really, for someone like Jack, who has accepted that he doesn’t quite have the ability to be an actual superhero, finding a partner isn’t exactly a priority.
(He doesn’t deserve one anyway. He’d already had one and, okay, no they hadn’t been a perfect match - Kent was all uncontrollable lightening instead of pure fire; but usually they’d managed. Electricity included heat after all. Usually they managed to limp by. Until they couldn’t.)
So when he signs up for the site (powermatch.com), he doesn’t bother updating his profile aside from the basics (Jack Zimmermann//Ice Creation and Manipulation) and leaves it at that.
So he is surprised when he gets an e-mail.
YOU HAVE A MESSAGE! The subject line reads. POSSIBLE MATCH!
Jack almost closes it but… well, it couldn’t hurt to look.
And it’s confusing because ice powers are supposed to match with fire - everyone knows that - but the message he has is from a… shapeshifter?
He’s shirtless in his photo and his name is apparently “Shitty” and–
“BRAH!” the message reads. “YOU GOTTA JOIN US!”
The caps lock stops after that (thank god) but the cursing doesn’t and Jack only understand about a third of the message, but it ends with a phone number and it’s more curiosity than anything that has Jack calling.
“Hello!” a voice says.
“Shitty?” Jack asks.
“Sorry, he’s a cat right now,” the voice says. “Can I take a message?”
“Um,” Jack says. “I- he messaged me? Actually, nevermind, I–”
“Wait, wait, wait,” the voice says. “Are you the fucking awesome ice dude?”
“Uh, yes?”
“SHITTY, SHIFT BACK! YOUR ICE BOY CALLED!”
There’s a rustle and the phone gets held away and then–
Then, Jack talks to Shitty. And he was right, shapeshifters and ice people aren’t natural matches but Shitty says something about a “team” that he wants Jack to join and “just come visit! It’ll be fun!” and–
Jack has no idea how it happens (he’s pretty sure he actually protested? Like at least 40% of the time?) but he winds up down in America. Near Providence. And there he meets Shitty, a shapeshifter who never bothers wearing clothes (“because they don’t stay with me, man, so what’s the point?); Ransom and Holster, who can read each others’ minds but no one else’s; Lardo, who can paint things into existence for brief bursts of time; and Johnson, who seems to be some sort of… prophet? At least he says a lot of weird things that Jack doesn’t understand.
But Johnson is the one who tells Jack he is “totally going to stay here, man. It’ll be good for you. You’ve done this a thousand different ways.” And then Jack does decide to stay and join “this swawesome team of superheros!!” so maybe Johnson is a prophet.
He also ends up liking it. The gang is fun and chill and they are just learning to save people so they start small and still–
Still, Jack wishes one of them were a fire-starter. His power means he’s always cold and he’s powerful, always has been, so for all the days he manages to keep his ice under control, there are other days where it just spills everywhere. His new roommates claim not to mind - he tries to go outside when he needs to burst and they take up skating and form a hockey team - but his ice takes forever to melt and people should not be forced to wear winter coats in the Haus in summer.
(Also, there’s a week when Shitty shifts into a polar bear and just stays like that and they almost run out of money having to feed him.)
So almost a full year later, when Shitty tells him “I FOUND A WARMTH DUDE, BRO!” Jack assumes Shitty has found him a fire-starter. A real one. Someone who can balance him out. Who can thaw out his ice and maybe remind Jack what it’s like to be above freezing (not that he really minds, he’s gotten used to the cold, but… it would be nice.)
Jack might even be excited for the fire-starter to get there.
The kid seems… young - he’s short and excited and arrives with a bag full of baking supplies - but Jack is ready to give him a chance. It’s supposed to be a great relationship. Jack can handle any fires that get out of control; the new kid - Bitty - can help melt Jack’s accidents.
Of course, then Jack finds out what Bitty’s power actually is.
And Bitty is not actually a fire-starter.
He’s… well, Jack isn’t sure there is a name for it. He’s just… warmth. He can get hot enough (up to 500 degrees fahrenheit apparently) but it takes him about 10 minutes and that’s in a small area, it takes even longer if he has to defrost a whole room and to add insult to injury, he primarily uses his power to bake.
“It’s not going to work,” Jack tells Shitty as the new kid heads into the living room. “Shits, I need– I iced our whole house once. This kid– he can’t even start a proper fire. It’s just warm air. He’s too weak.”
Shitty frowns at him. Tells Jack to give him a chance. Invites the kid to move in and join the team right away.
Jack gets so frustrated he loses control and coats the whole first floor with ice. Bitty just frowns at it, looking dismayed and overwhelmed. Jack stomps up the stairs, fighting the urge to tell Shitty “I told you so” and just goes to bed. At this rate, he’ll never be able to feel his fingertips again.
He jams his hands against his chest anyway, closes his eyes, and wills himself to sleep.
The next morning, he goes downstairs to find the ice completely gone.