The Seasons of Love

Chapter 1 - Beautiful

Summary: Merida has never felt beautiful. It's Jack's job to change that. Shameless fluff.

A/N: BEFORE WE GO ANY FARTHER - all one-shots are canon, unless I say differently. If I state that Jack is human, or it's a modern AU or Merida's not a princess, then that's the truth for the one-shot in question. And do not ask how these two met, or how they started dating. Use your imagination! Secondly, if you're looking for a story with adult themes, this really isn't the place, to be honest. I'm writing shameless fluff here, and it's all mostly kid-friendly. Basically, you guys get a drabble/one-shot of 3k or less from me whenever I feel like writing Jarida, and it will be based off whatever's in my brain at the time. So, be prepared.

Also, about the chapter in question - yes, it's canon, and yes, Merida acts girly. That is because every girl wants to feel beautiful at some point in their lives, even the tomboyish archer Merida. I've always imagined her to be a very secure, confident person so writing this chapter and envisioning her never feeling beautiful was really hard for me.

Jack Frost was, by nature, not a romantic person.

Or, at least, he wasn't good at showing the romantic side of himself, if he had one. He could talk for hours with children much younger than himself and not once tire of them. He could argue enjoyably with Bunny for however long it took the Pooka to start pulling on his own ears in frustration. He could pull truly spectacular pranks on North's yetis while they worked, or turn a whole corridor of the Pole into a skating rink.

But if you asked him to buy a dozen roses for his girlfriend and present them to her with charm and grace, he was completely tongue-tied. If you handed him a Hallmark card and told him to fill it with sweet and beautiful nothings of the mushy variety, he would stare at the card for hours, but when he gave it back, it would still be decidedly blank. Jack Frost just was not good at talking about his feelings, especially the kind that involved romantic relationships.

And he was okay with that. His girlfriend was okay with that. She might have been the princess of Dunbroch, but her standards weren't so high as to demand that he do sweet things for her whenever he thought of it. And much as he sometimes wanted to tell her things, like that she was beautiful, or something really corny, like she took his breath away (if he had any breath whatsoever, it'd be completely true – corny, but true). Much as he sometimes wanted to say these things, he didn't. He knew he'd just make a complete fool of himself, so he figured why bother?

But at the same time, he knew Merida wanted it. He wasn't the most sensitive guy around, but he couldn't fail to notice Merida's reaction to other couples who were overtly more affectionate than they were; she kind of sighed, and her eyes gained that glazed look, that look that meant she wanted that. She wanted to feel beautiful, too. And knowing how rarely she ever felt beautiful (he still had trouble believing that she hated her hair) Jack knew something needed to be done. A prince could probably make her feel beautiful in ways that he could not, he reflected, but Merida didn't want a prince. As difficult as he found it to believe, she wanted him.

He could have done something simple, like take her on a flight, or give her a small part of winter, but he wanted this to be different. He took her on flights all the time, or he stayed beside her while she did her lessons, keeping her entertained by telling her jokes. This did have the slight disadvantage of making her laugh at inappropriate moments, and this just made Elinor even more wholly convinced that all the trouble with bears had either affected Merida's mind, or the princess had no appreciation for her ancestors.

Jack really wanted her to know what he thought of her this time, and difficult as he knew it was going to be, he'd have to tell her. He pressed his fingers lightly to the glass of the window in the North Pole, staring out at the winter night. Frost curled from his fingers, spreading all over the glass in a fern-like pattern. If only telling her how he felt was as easy as frosting over a window…

That's it!

Merida awoke to a crackling sound. It wasn't common for Jack to visit her so early in the morning – he, unlike her mother, appreciated that she needed time to wake slowly, and so he gave her the needed space in the mornings. So why did she hear frost crackling on her window? The sun wasn't even fully up yet!

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and kicked off her covers, stumbling a little on her way to the window. Jack must want to speak to her. He might have something important or urgent to tell her, worrying her slightly. But when she pushed open the window, nobody was there. Had he really woken her up just to put frost on her window? She slammed it shut again, fuming a little to herself. Well, if that was the case, he could have waited until later to do so.

But as she turned to crawl back in bed before her mother came in – maybe she could get in a little more sleep before then – something on the window caught her eye. The frost covered the whole pane, but it wasn't the icy white that made her look. It was the words traced within, spelling out, I LOVE YOU.

For a minute, Merida stood frozen. She rubbed at her eyes in confusion, thinking maybe the exhaustion was catching up to her. Jack did not leave 'I love you' in the frost on her window. He'd never written anything on her window, as far as she could remember. When she was thoroughly convinced that it was not just her eyes playing tricks on her, or some weird dream, she smiled to herself, sitting back down on the edge of the bed. She didn't even care about the early hour anymore. Jack Frost had just made her feel beautiful.