Winter
A story featuring Jack Frost and the Russian siblings.
" Thanks for the lift, North!"
A young man called out as he swiftly flew from a sleigh parking in the middle of the sky. His snow white hair fluttered in the harsh wind of an upcoming snow storm. Dark blue hoodie prickled with ice as he slide over the forest on his magical cane. A pair of big icy blue eyes shone in glee, accompanied by a wide grin and playful attitude. Jack Frost was now descending to the vast land covered with snow, Russia.
"Don't mention it!" An accented voice shouted from the flying sleigh and Santa Claus himself got into view, "Just don't cause any trouble!"
"I won't!" Jack laughed and dashed away from the sleigh, jumping from branches to tops of pine trees, clearly enjoying the weather even though it was cloudy and very cold. But of course, Jack Frost was Jack Frost, and he was there to bring winter to the world's largest country before Christmas arrived.
"This is going to be great!"
The young spirit sighed happily at his handy work. The whole country was covered with a layer of white snow. Little snowflakes sprang upon the wind and danced across cities, sliding over windows and cars. Roofs were topped with the white substance like icing on a ginger bread house and glass was frozen into delicate and complex patterns. Overall, Russia looked like one of those snow globes, so cute and magical.
Suddenly the sky turned gray, he felt a huge gust of wind, uncontrolled and heading straight to him. He lifted his hands to block it, but the force was too strong, which sent him spiraling off the tree branch he was standing on. More gusts appeared, blowing through the street and knocked him off his feet. He rolled over and struggled to get up, but his limbs were in pain, frozen in a way that even his strongest concentration couldn't control it. Pins and needles ran up his spine, signaling that there was something wrong, and that was when he looked up.
Wincing as his hair blew into his eyes, he lifted his head and met stormy dark eyes. The man standing in front of him was huge, like Santa huge, with dark frosty beard and emotionless ancient face. He was wearing some sort of traditional Russian costumes, but more tattered and frozen. The costume was mostly hidden by a large overcoat, specked with rusty brown stains. Whatever they were, he wouldn't like to know. Judging from the terrifying power he was radiating and the frost that webbed across his body, Jack Frost could only have one guess.
"A-Are you... Like me?" He managed to croak out.
The man only stared at him for a long time before shaking his head and spoke in a deep raspy voice that sounded like a blizzard in its most terrible moments.
"Nyet."
With that, the man raised a hand and Jack was blasted away. When the young spirit got out of sight, the man lumbered away, tracing snow storms and blizzards at his wake.
"So what should we do now?"
"Let's kill him."
"No, Natalya! You can't just kill a guardian!"
"But he had trespassed into big brother's land..." A sound of knife being unsheathed was heard.
"Natalya!"
A groan escaped his lips as Jack Frost blinked his eyes open. He looked at the group of people arguing in front of him. His bleary eyes slowly scanned the place and he found out that he was lying on a sofa in some sort of living room. The room was decorated with traditional Russian furnitures and at a corner was a fireplace, warm flames dancing between pieces of cut wood.
"Wha-what is this place?" He moaned, trying to get up, but was pushed down by a soft hand. The hand belonged to a woman at her mid-twenties, with short blond hair and big teary blue eyes. She was wearing some sort of white button up long sleeved collared shirt with a light blue bow tie with dark blue pants. A heart-warming smile stretched across her lips as she told him to rest, but what distracted him the most was her chest region - very, uh, developed. He blushed slightly at the thought, mentally shaking his head.
"Oh you poor dear, you must be so brave to face General Winter like that." She sniffed and patted his cheeks in adore. The younger girl next to her clicked her tongue and glared at the boy.
"Bah, we all saw him crashing into the wall." She spoke with disdain, but shut up when the man next to her put a hand on her shoulder.
Both man and woman seemed to be in their late teens with intimidating aura. The young girl had long beige-colored hair that went down mid-back. On top of her head was a large white bow. She had big dark blue eyes that spelled innocent, but the way she frowned and held her knife meant death to anyone who pissed her off. Dark purple dress fit her perfectly with a large white apron tied tightly around her waist.
Clasping on the girl's shoulder was a gloved hand, leading up to strong arm and shoulder. The man was smiling childishly, purple colored eyes twinkling in a way that resembled a child. He had a large nose and chubby face, framed by shaggy light beige-blond hair. On his neck was a cream scarf, big and heavy and worn. His whole upper body was covered with a large beige coat. From Jack's view, he looked almost as tall as that man he saw earlier, which meant he was pretty big for a human.
"It's quite rude to stare, you know~" The man laughed, his voice contrasting with his body. It was high and very childlike, accompanied by a wider smile which spelled trouble.
Jack Frost snapped out of his daze and fumbled embarrassedly on the bed sheet. "Uh, I... You can see me?"
The three people exchanged looks and soon two of them broke into chuckles.
"Of course, dear." The kind-looking woman wiped a tear of laughter from her face. "We do believe in you, despite our age."
"Your name is Jack Frost, da?" The tall man inclined. "Why, you are very much loved here, unlike Him."
"Him?"
"Oh, Ivan. The poor boy is confused!" The woman scolded. "At least introduce yourselves first! Sorry, dear. My name is Katyusha."
"And I'm Ivan~! Katyusha is our older sister~!" Ivan sang. "And the girl with the knife is my younger sister, Natalya."
Natalya scowled and flung her knife towards a dartboard nearby, clearly not in the mood to talk. It hit the board right in the center, and he couldn't help but feel he was supposed to be that poor dartboard. The girl then moodily walked back to her place next to her brother and gripped onto his arm with an iron fist, making the man paled, even though his face was already a very pale color, suitable for a man who spent most of his time in this snowy country. Jack coughed to regain the attention, which he did. All three heads whipped back to the young guardian, making him felt rather uncomfortable.
"So..." Jack fidgeted his blanket. "Who's Him?"
Katyusha smiled dimmed and her eyes saddened considerably. Natalya didn't respond, but she reached out her free hand to grip on her sister's sleeve also. Ivan, however, by far had the worst reaction yet. His whole body twitched violently and his childish smile slowly melted, his purple eyes dulled as he collapsed on his knees and began mumbling some Russian words, hugging himself while rocking back and forth.
"Ah, He is..." Katyusha swallowed heavily. "... General Winter."
Ivan gasped loudly and burled up into a ball, his body shivering heavily even though the fireplace was keeping the whole room warm.
"General Winter?" Jack asked loudly and flinched when Ivan whimpered. He then repeated it with a quieter voice. "What do you mean?"
The young woman glanced towards her brother's shivering form and the her young sister's eyes. Getting the message, Natalya hoisted her brother up and together they walked out of the room and out of hearing. Turning back to the boy, Katyusha let out a heavy sigh.
"You see... May I?" She asked, pointing to the foot of his bed, to which he nodded and she sat down, avoiding crushing the spirit's legs. "Well, you see... General Winter is the name of an almost ancient winter spirit..."
"... He appeared on this planet thousands of years ago, when human civilization started to develop during the age of medieval or maybe earlier. He carried snow inside him, like you, but without a true purpose. Most of the time, he would use his ability to terrorize nations in the Northern parts of the world with now storms and blizzards. After that he moves to hiding places during spring and summer, like how a bear hibernates. His powers are fueled with great evil and dark intentions made by humans during war times. Because of his evil deeds, he was not granted the privilege to be what you are, a guardian."
At that, she smiled and poked his chest, making him laughed a bit. Then he noticed something strange. She poked him, and he could feel the place where her finger landed on. Then he realized, he was also pushed down earlier. He blinked and looked up, meeting her blue eyes.
"How-how can you touch me? You are not a child at all!" He asked, confused. "But you can see me also. You believe in me?"
"That, and another reason." Katyusha smiled sincerely. "We're not human."
His brain froze. Huh.
So there are things he didn't really know about, including that old winter spirit.
But to imagine such human-looking... whatever they were.
Wait a minute.
"We?" He squeaked, trying to sound manly at the action.
"Why yes." The woman nodded, her eyes turned teary. "I'm sorry if I hadn't inform you earlier. I scared you, didn't I?"
She started to cry, much to Jack's discomfort. He took her hand in his, trying to calm her down. "Don't cry, please! I'm just a bit shock, that's all!"
"O-okay..." She sniffed and blew into her handkerchief. Jack waited for her to finish before facing her again, this time with a lot more questions in his head.
"So... Your brother and sister are like you, too?" She nodded at that. "Are you the only ones?"
"Why, no." She shook her head and made a gesture, her arms stretched out into the air to indicate the number of people like her. "We are all over the globe. Each of us reside in one country, some have two if required. Some lived in smaller regions, called Micronations."
"So what country do you live in?"
"I stay in Ukraine, while Natalya lives in Belarus and Ivan in Russia. There are also Ludwig and Gilbert in Germany, Alfred in America, Arthur in England, Toris in Lithuania..." She counted on her fingers and smiled at him, blinking her tears away. "There are about over 200 countries in the world, so that makes us more and 200 individuals."
Jack Frost stared at the smiling woman in front of him, trying to digest the information. A last question popped into his mind and before he knew it, his mouth moved on its own.
"What are you?"
The woman looked a bit shock as her tears welled up again. Before she could reply, the door swung open to reveal a healthier-looking Ivan, who announced only three words. Three words that changed his view to the whole world forever.
"We are Nations."
The windows bursted open and cold winds shot in, carrying bitter snow that abruptly drained out the fire place, lowering a few dozen degrees in the room. Natalya from the other side ran in, her mask of cruel indifference broke as she shouted into the blazing wind.
"GENERAL WINTER IS HERE!"
Without a signal, a part of the wall crumbled and they were blown away, body smashing into the opposite wall. Jack Frost struggled up and stood using his cane as some sort of a shield, his teeth bared with anger when he saw the crumbling form of Katyusha and Ivan cradling his young sister's body. Surprisingly, Ivan stood up next to him after he gingerly placed his sister down, head held high, back straight and shoulder squared like that of a soldier's.
"Хватит, Генеральный зимние." He spoke, purple eyes flashed dangerously. "You have done enough."
"What he said." Jack agreed as he held out his cane, which was crackling with energy. "Although I don't understand Russian."
The spirit appeared in front of them through a flurry of snow. His giant body loomed over them, shadowing a good half of the room. His dark stormy eyes stared at the self-proclaimed nation before moving onto him.
When their eyes met, Jack Frost gasped as his vision was filled with pain, anger , grief, cold, misjudgment, death, war. For a second, he thought he was a younger version of Ivan, standing in the middle of a snow storm. Chubby hands stained with red rusty color hugged the child's body as he cried. The image shifted and he saw General Winter appearing, using blizzards to attack three other boys, all dressed in medieval clothing. He saw Katyusha and Natalya calling for Ivan in the heavy snow. So many images, so many that he knew they will haunt him forever.
But...
The last vision was Ivan, now grown up, giggling in childish glee as he controlled General Winter to wipe away invading armies.
He blinked as General Winter broke the eye-contact, the ancient spirit being forced away by a raging Ivan, who was screaming profanities at the spirit. He was melting finally, his body flickering in the harsh wind and even harsher words coming from the Russian's mouth. But he didn't forget to turn to a metaphorically frozen Jack Frost at the corner and gave him a nod before disappearing completely.
"What..." Jack croaked. "... was that?"
Ivan was breathing heavily, but he managed to flash the guardian a smile. "He was saying hello to his fellow winter spirit, the hard way, I guess."
Jack let out a forced laugh.
"Are you sure you want to go now? We want to introduce you to some friends of us!"
"Hahaha, I think I had enough for today!"
The young guardian called out to Ivan, who was now Russia, as he flew into the sky with his summoned wind. The nation just laughed and waved, while his sister Katyusha, now Ukraine, cupped her hands over her mouth and yelled.
"Remember to visit us sometimes!"
"I will!" Jack laughed and flew away into a colorful vortex and disappeared.
Lithuania smiled as he gazed at the cloudy sky, wiping a sweat rolling down his face. "He is an interesting fellow, isn't he?"
"Very." Estonia agreed as he chucked away a piece of brick. "Based on my research, he is the embodiment of the brighter and more enjoyable side of what we know as winter, a perfect contrast to General Winter."
"H-he is ve-very n-nice." Latvia spoke softly, picking up a half-destroyed picture frame. "H-he left us p-pretty p-p-pattern-ns on our wi-window. Th-the child-children enjoy h-his compa-pa-pany v-very much..."
"And I will enjoy it further if you guys finish helping me rebuilding my house, da?." Russia smiled creepily as he loomed over the three smaller nations.
"Y-yes Mr. R-russia!" The Baltic Trio squeaked fearfully.
"Oh, you're back late today!" Santa Claus said to Jack Frost when he arrived back to the workshop. "Found something interesting?"
The young spirit shivered a bit and laughed. "Yep. I met a few interesting people on the way."
"Good to hear." The older guardian replied absently as he walked through the workshop. "Nah, too pattern-y. Make them pink."
The yeti who was designing Barbie's hundred dresses with delicate flower patterns groaned and bashed his head down his worktable. Jack Frost bit back a laugh at the poor creature and followed the man in red.
"No, really!" Jack twirled his cane and floated next to Santa, his face bright with joy. "I met the Nations!"
"The Nations?" Santa asked with interest as he kept on walking. "You mean the personifications of the countries? Quite funny beings, aren't they?"
"Wait, you know about this?" The young guardian hung upside down from his floating cane, eye to eye with the jolly man. "Why haven't you tell me this before?"
Santa just laughed. "Well you never asked."
"No fair!"
"I dropped you at Russia, so you must had met that old spirit of winter too, right?"
"YOU KNEW!"
"Ho ho ho ho~"
"DON'T IGNORE ME!"
"Hmm... Too robotic and square. Make them curve." Thump. Another yeti went down.
"NORTH!"
"Watch out for the flying monkeys."
"Huh?" Thump. Jack landed on his face. "WHAT'S WITH THE WIZARD OF OZ THEME?"
"Told you to watch out."
Hi guys!
So, Merry Christmas to all writers and readers! This is my first crossover fic featuring Jack Frost and the Russian siblings. I hope the ending won't be too weird. This is my first time to write about Jack Frost so if he was OOC please tell me.
Hope you like it!
TAMB out.