Dead || Jack Frost

Seventeen

Jack gasped harshly, breath rattling in his lungs as the memories ended. He could feel his eyes tearing up as he blinked at the white walls of ice around them. "Dia", he gasped. "Dia". In his arms, Dia was unresponsive. Jack clutched the figure tightly to him, feeling his shivers. Jack was also shivering. The emotions of two sets of memories, two deaths, making him shake with emotion.

"Dia", he repeated. "Dia!" Dia's head lolled against his arm. Eyes closed and lips blue. Jack almost freaked out but relaxed slightly when he saw that Dia was still breathing. "It's too cold", he realised. "Dia wake up!" He tapped his cheek hard enough that the sleeping boy stirred.

Dia's eyes fluttered open. Green meeting blue as he gazed sleepily up at the other boy. Jack watched as they widened, becoming more aware. Water filled them and Dia sobbed. Jack could do nothing but tuck the other boy in close as he shook. Huge gasping wet breaths rattling his chest as Dia hurried his head in the crook of Jack's shoulder. "Shhh", Jack soothed. He began rocking Dia gently from side to side like he recalled his mother doing to him when he was small. The memory comforting yet still new. "It's okay. Just let it out. I'm here Dia. You're not alone".

Eventually Dia's sobs lessened to whimpers and his tight grip on Jack's hoodie lessened. He seemed to warm slightly in Jack's arms. Body recovering it's power as all the grief and anger Dia had been holding was let go. Hundreds of years of pain all building up in a tide of body shaking sobs. "It's not fair", Dia gasped, chest heaving. He coughed wetly, tears marks covering his face. "I didn't want to die".

"I know", Jack hummed. He rested his head against Dia's. "It's not fair". Dia let out a small hiccup. His breathing still irregular and tears still falling. But Jack could definitely feel him warming up beneath his hands. Maybe all the other spirit needed was someone to be there for him? Maybe what he had needed was a guardian? It explained why he was so angry. He was failed not just before his death, but after it as well. When no one was there to help him with his memories. Jack was glad that Dia was there for him.

"Sorry", Dia muttered, gesturing to the wet patches on Jack's hoodie.

Jack chuckled, ignoring the sad thoughts. "It's fine". As he spoke, ice patterns froze the salty water into beautiful swirls. Dia made a small oh noise, his eyes still glassy and wet. Jack melted. He cupped Dia's cheeks in his hands, thumbs wiping the fresh drops away.

"You've been holding this a long time, haven't you?" He muttered softly.

Dia blinked and sniffed, nose and eyes red from crying. "Sorry", he said again, voice small arms if he was ashamed. "Thank you".

"You're not alone now Dia", Jack smiled reassuringly. His fingers still capturing tears. Each drop transforming into a tiny blue snowflake as it touched his skin. Until it seemed like Dia was crying magical snowflakes into the breeze. The ice floating around the two spirits as they knelt together deep in a snowy ravine.

"Dia", Jack's voice was barely more than a breath. "Can I-?" He drifted off questioningly. Dia's eyelashes fluttered as he blinked. Green eyes deep with colour as they met blue.

"Yes". 

A second of silence ticked by. Both of them searching the other's face for something. Then Jack leaned in. Dia surged forwards to meet him. The tanned boy's hands coming up to grip at Jack's shoulders as Jack cupped his cheeks. The first press of their lips together was chaste. A light touch before they pulled apart. Both of them blinked at each other before closing their eyes and sweeping back in.

Another chaste peck. A breath before their lips were moving slowly together. Both boys sloppy and unpractised, not that either cared. It tasted of salt and was a little wet from Dia's crying, but perfect. So much more than either had thought. Jack nuzzled their noses against each other as they moved and Dia sighed against Jack's lips as if a weight was falling off his shoulders. A heavy burden releasing him from its clutches. Jack could sympathise. Kissing Dia made him feel both calm and overjoyed at the same time.

He didn't feel complete exactly. He did not need Dia to be complete. But he felt at peace. Like the other boy made him feel better. While Dia felt like he finally understood all that he had heard of romantic love. The giddy excitement, the electric connection. He felt warm. He felt loved.

When they finally pulled away, their lips were bruised and faces flushed. Jack had a blue tinge to his cheeks while Dia was a bright red. Both of them were panting slightly. Jack made a small noise, a grin widening his lips. He leaned in and rubbed their noses together again as he rested his forehead against Dia's. The boy's long black hair tickling his face. "So", he smiled. "You do like me".

Dia coughed but failed to hide a smile of his own. "I never said that".

"I think the kissing speaks for itself". Jack pressed another kiss, a quick peck, to the corner of Dia's smiling lips and pulled back to see his face. Dia's green eyes were half lidded and he was a soft expression on his face. His cheeks so warm under Jack's hands that he was blazing.

"Dia", Jack smirked.

"Hmm?" Dia was too busy staring at the winter spirit in front of him. He had never noticed how frost made his eyelashes sparkly before.

"You're glowing". Dia hastily looked down. His chest was glowing a warm pale pink through his shirt. The shadows of his bones visible through the soft light. The colour adding purple tinges to Jack's skin and hair as the winter boy giggled.

"I think you are better now", Jack pointed out. Dia flushed again and a few stray petals materialised in the snow around them.

"Stop laughing", he scowled, flicking Jack on the nose for extra incentive. Jack stopped giggling to watch as Dia pouted. He took in the new warmth in Dia's skin. The blazing heat and bright glow. The way the bags under his eyes had faded and his eyes now held that familiar spark.

Jack sighed deeply in relief and rubbed his thumbs over Dia's cheek bones. The other boy's annoyance melting under his touch. "Don't scare me like that again please".

"I'll try not to", Dia replied. "I didn't enjoy being cold either". Jack hummed as he buried his head in Dia's hair. The two of them falling into a fond silence for a moment as they let their emotions process. Dia still had tear marks on his cheeks. Jack wiped them away with the sleeve of his hoodie, brushing the snow from his hair and clothes. Dia let him, basking under the other boy's attention.

"We should probably go and help stop Pitch", Dia reminded quietly, as if to break their little soft bubble. Then he grinned teasingly at Jack. "You know. Save the world now that we have our powers back".

Jack laughed, own spirit rising at the challenge. "Alright skull boy", he grinned. Dia stood up, leg only slightly shaky and held out a hand. Jack took it and let him pull him up. He snatched up his fixed staff and twirled it experimentally through the air. It seemed fine. As good as before. Dia spared a look at the two shredded purple scarves lying in the snow. He let out a sigh and unwound two different scarves from his waist and tied them round his fists.

"Ready to go?" Jack asked, holding out a hand. Dia nodded and took it. Together, they soared up from the ice and into the open sky.

Unedited