Spirit of Steel

Balto and Jenna strolled lazily down one of the side streets of Nome, drinking in the way the unusually warm weather lay soft against their coats. The houses and buildings of Nome rose up on either side of them, their ice-laced windows letting slip colored lighting from within. The occasional opening door released delicious, home-baked smells throughout the breezy streets.

Balto lifted his nose to the wind and took a deep, appreciative sniff, whiskers trembling with happiness at the smell of roasting ham. "This is why I love the holidays," he commented to Jenna as he leapt onto an empty doghouse and snuck a peek through one of the residential windows. "All the food you could ever dream of, and it's all gathered in one place" he drooled, eyes wide and attentive as he stared inside.

Jenna laughed at the vacant expression on his face and jumped up alongside him. "Is that the only reason? Not grateful for anything else?" she prompted, nuzzling his shoulder.

He turned to her with a smile and nudged her back. "No," he murmured, nose buried deep in her velvet fur, "that's not the only reason."

The moment was broken by the harsh cries of men, and both canines jerked their heads up towards the source. Balto pivoted his ears, straining to catch the sound of whatever the men were reacting to instead of their reaction itself. His eyes widened when he received the sounds of runner boards squeaking on snow.

"Sled team!"

He hit the icy ground and in an instant was off, Jenna on his heels, pelting for the town square. The two pulled up sharply as the back alley ended and Main Street began, arriving just as the tail end of the sled team slid into town. Men and women rushed to the driver, slapping him on the back and seemingly congratulating both him and his female accompaniment. The driver's laugh was loud and deep, and it harmonized with the woman's sweet, higher voice fantastically.

Balto glanced knowingly at Jenna, and she smiled. "Newlyweds," she whispered. "Their voices match so perfectly, it can't be anything else." Balto nodded in agreement and took another sniff of the air.

"New sled team, smells like they're from Nenana," he commented, glancing over the mess of bushy coats and tails. "I haven't seen any of them before."

Suddenly Balto froze with his nose in the air, the fur on his back slowly rising into jagged, inverted icicles along his spine. His neck fur ruffled up into a mane of spikes, and his tail and ears rose aggressively.

"Balto? What is it?" Jenna stepped closer, concerned, before following his gaze down the line of sled dogs before them. Her paws became frozen to the spot.

At the head of the line, looking back at them with narrowed eyes, was a very familiar husky named Steele.

"Who does that coward think he is, returning to Nome like this?!"

Balto paced rapidly back and forth, his tail whipping side to side with each step and his claws digging into the icy ground. His upper lip was curled back and a snarl was fixed on his face, one not only from anger but also a small, desperately hidden shred of fear. "What does he mean by it? What is he trying to accomplish? No one here will ever believe him now, so why would he come back?"

Jenna's tail swished across the ice where she sat, and she kneaded her paws into the snow. A worried frown had etched itself into her face, and she tried desperately not to give into her frustration and confusion externally. "I don't know why he's back, Balto. Maybe he had no choice. He must've gotten on that sled team from Nenana right after he left…maybe it's just a coincidence."

"A coincidence? With Steele? I don't think so," Balto bit back, rounding on his next turn with a vengeance. "He's always got something hidden away, some new plan or trick to play—he doesn't do coincidences."

Jenna sighed between bared teeth, secretly agreeing and wishing she could bite deep into Steele's fur. That husky had caused her so many problems in the past, and just when she thought she was finally rid of him, he had to come back to haunt her once again.

When she finally spoke, her voice was strangely controlled, airy and soft. "You're right. He doesn't do coincidences. So let's go see what he has to say."

Balto glanced back at her, surprised. "You want to go and confront him?"

Jenna nodded and stood up. "It's what you want to do too, isn't it? We'll never know if we hide from him the whole time he's here." Her gaze faded sadly for a moment, as if she was looking through the mists of time. "I'm not running away from him anymore."

She felt a familiar nose nuzzle against her fur, and then the two were off, paws kicking up snow and ice as they ran towards their mutual ghost.

Most of the crowed had dispersed by the time Balto and Jenna arrived back at Main Street, but two of the foreign sled dogs remained, standing side by side and murmuring together. One was definitely Steele; Balto and Jenna had seen that coat far too many times, both awake and in nightmares, to ever misplace it.

But the other dog was a mystery to them. She was far smaller than Steele, but she appeared lithe and agile, her littler body hiding well-toned muscles and a boasting a full coat. She was chocolate in color, save the splashes of vanilla on her belly and paws, and the tuft of fur around her nose was cherry colored. She appeared pleasant enough, conversing with Steele, and both Balto and Jenna couldn't fathom why she would spend her time with a rat like him.

The female dog looked up as they approached and stood to recognize them. Balto saw her and strode ahead, Jenna falling behind just to his side, letting him take the lead. Despite his mixed emotions towards Steele, Balto couldn't help but be polite to the stranger, and he fixed his face in a smile as best as he could.

"Welcome to Nome," he said in a friendly tone, dipping his head in greeting to the female. "I'm Balto, and this is Jenna."

"Nice to meet you! I'm Lumia," she replied sweetly, "and this is Steele."

Steele looked down at them, his face as fearful and disapproving as ever. When he spoke, his voice was guttural and rumbling. "They know who I am, Lumia. These are the… friends I was talking about."

A shocked look came over Lumia's face, and her right ear twitched nervously. "Oh, I'm sorry—I should've known! Silly me. You're the great Balto, aren't you? And I've heard so much about you, Jenna, from all sorts of dogs—everyone seems to know who the two of you are on sight, save me." She tilted her head, one ear flopping to the side, and positively beamed. "Sorry about that, I can be such a clutz sometimes. It's an honor to meet the both of you!"

Balto blinked in total surprise, but he caught onto the conversation as best as he could, given the circumstances. "It's an honor to meet you as well, Lumia. Do you—I mean, how did—what I mean to say is—"

"How did you meet Steele?" Jenna cut in, rescuing Balto from his brief lapse of conversational skills. Balto sighed in gratitude.

"Oh, Steele? Well when he came to Nenana a while back, he was put on my sled team. Ever since then, we've been together!" Lumia's fluffy tail flicked lightly against Steele's shoulder, and she fairly beamed.

"Wait, you…you're a…" Jenna couldn't finish the words.

"You're a couple?" Balto blurted out, the rims of his eyes bulging back into his skull.

Lumia giggled. "Well of course we are! Didn't you know that?"

"N-no, we had no clue."

"Oh. Well, now you do!" She leaned against Steele's shoulder, appreciating his thick fur. "We've been a couple for…let's see, how many months has it been?"

"Four," Steele replied, his tail wrapping around her back. "But I'm sure Balto doesn't want to hear about that." He turned his attention to Nome's hero, gray eyes boring into his. "How have you been, Balto?"

"I…fine. Just fine."

Steele nodded slowly. "Good, good. And you, Jenna?"

Jenna's ears folded back, but her voice was steady and held light. "I've been wonderful, Steele, thanks for asking. And yourself?"

A hint of a smirk caught in Steele's whiskers before the wind whisked it away. "Better than ever, actually." Lumia leaned against him a fraction more, and Jenna could have sworn he returned the action.

"I'm glad. For both of you," Jenna added, uneasiness choking her like a toxic fog. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. A quick glance at Balto's mistrusting face quickly assured her that she wasn't alone.

"Why are you back?" Balto's ears were up, but his fur remained smooth as lake ice. "Why did you come back to Nome, after everything you did?"

Steele gazed at him with an air of apathy before finally breaking eye contact and focusing on the horizon. "If you hadn't noticed, Balto, I am on a sled team. It was a part of my job. Do you think I came because of you?" The powerful husky snorted. "Don't think you're so special."

Balto's hackles started to rise, but he gritted his teeth and somehow managed to force his fur to lie flat. "I never said I did, Steele," he replied calmly, his voice radiating heat from anger but controlled nonetheless. "But I still find it interesting that you've returned to Nome, of all places…after all this time."

A cloud of icy vapor huffed from Steele's muzzle, and he shot another glance in Balto's general direction. "Trust me, it was not my intention," he growled, sheathing and unsheathing his claws into the ice. "However, while I am here…" He trailed off, metallic eyes focusing intently on the ground. "I would like to apologize. What I did was wrong and fueled by selfish, prideful motives. I was in the wrong, in so many things…but you were in the right. You always were, Balto." The dark husky raised his eyes back to Balto's, searching, questioning, finding. "And I am truly sorry."

The rest of the day was a wintry blur for Balto and Jenna as Steele's sled team left Nome and a rain of unexpected sleet cascaded from grumpy clouds. Balto and Jenna lay curled up in the sheltered area of Balto's old ship, warm fur ruffling in the breeze and noses buried in each other's flanks. Their breathing was synchronized and slow.

"I still can't believe what happened," Balto murmured, half asleep from exhaustion and shock. He sighed, trying to force his numb mind to sort through all that had happened in that day.

"I know. I can't either," Jenna replied, curling up into his warmth more. "But it did happen…and I think he was being serious about it. I think we have to accept it, strange as it is. It's probably the only apology we'll ever get from him, and to be honest I never expected one in the first place in even the wildest of my dreams."

Balto nodded, nuzzling into her fur and sighing heavily. "I know. And I'm wiling to accept it—that's the strange thing. I must've daydreamed of this countless times, and each time I imagined myself turning him down and walking away. But today, it wasn't like that. Not at all. It was…I could see the sorrow in his eyes. I could see it, Jenna." Balto shook his head and sat up, brushing a paw over his snout in frustration. "I never thought I could feel pity, of all things, for a dog like him."

Jenna rose slowly as well, stretching out her front legs and glancing over the coating of slush just outside their shelter. She smiled softly to herself as she sat up and shook stray snowflakes from her bushy coat. "Maybe it was meant to teach us a lesson."

Balto glanced up at her in surprise. "What?"

"Maybe Steele's sudden apology was meant to show us something…that we can judge someone as much as we like, even with reasonable circumstances, and they can still turn right around on us and show us a different character. They can change. It's weird," she added with a disbelieving shake of her head, "but we both saw it happen."

Balto gazed at Jenna with loving warmth before putting his chin on top of her head. "I guess I never thought of it that way before. Maybe you're right." He chuckled softly under his breath. "Maybe the holiday season got to him."

Jenna sighed sweetly as she leaned against his chest. "Maybe," she murmured, half asleep. "So the holidays aren't just about the food then, hmm?"

"No," he laughed, wrapping his tail around her and melting into her warmth. "They're about much more than that."

Finé!

I hope you guys enjoyed this Christmas-y fanfic! I just had to tie the holidays into it a little bit now, didn't I? I hope you liked the character Lumia as well; I made her up to go along with a backstory I'd devised for dear Steele. Lumia is mine, while the other characters most definitely are not. I do like playing with them, though—give a dog a bone!

I'd love it if you would all leave me some reviews and tell me what you liked about this story, what you didn't like, maybe what you'd like to see…all that kind of stuff!

I'd also like to give a shout out to Agent-007.1, who is a faithful follower of mine and requested this oneshot. I really hope you liked it!