Author's Notes: Thank you all for taking the time to read my story. For some reason, this idea just hit me and wouldn't let me go till I wrote it down. Also, though this story is rated T, I just wanted to warn you all that this is a story that recognizes the existence of sex and sexual desires. This is not for children.
So anyway, I hope you all enjoy Simply Lovely. Please take the time to fav/follow and review. I love getting feedback.
Chapter 1: Love and War
In Which We are Reacquainted with Old Friends and Meet a few New Ones
It was a week before Valentine's Day and love was in the air, driving Jack Frost crazy. He hated Valentine's Day. Every year, the people of the world became more concerned with their long boring walks in the park and quiet dinner dates instead of having fun. Jack had spent decades on his own personal campaign against the holiday, disrupting romantic kisses with snowballs and strategically placed sheets of ice. The mischievous frost sprite had even managed to protect Jamie, the most important person in his life, from the damn holiday's influence for years. He should have known that he couldn't protect the boy forever.
"What do you mean you have a date tonight?!" Jack exclaimed in horror from Jamie's bedroom window.
The gangly teenager self-consciously ran a hand through his unruly mop of brown hair, "Well, Cupcake… I mean, Martha had two tickets to the movies and asked if I wanted to go. It's no big deal."
"No big deal?!" Jack jumped from the window sill like furious cat and landed in front Jamie. The boy's height was making it difficult for Jack to glare down at him, but he managed.
Much had changed since that wonderful day when little nine year-old Jamie Bennett had first seen Jack Frost. For one thing, both he and Jamie had grown. But while Jamie's transformation had been one of hormones and growth spurts, Jack's had been something a bit more magical. Nothing is more mortifying, not to mention extremely awkward, than having old St. Nick sit you down to explain the metaphysical birds and the bees. Apparently, there was more to becoming a guardian then Jack had realized; like puberty.
"Sure, you think it's all harmless now, but wait till you're staring into each other's eyes for hours on end," Jack said as he paced within the small room, throwing up his arms and sending out agitated streaks of frost across the floor. "If you do this, you won't want to go have fun anymore."
"You're not my dad, Jack!" Jamie cried in frustration and confusion. It hurt to not have Jack's support. "Hell, my parents are thrilled I've got a date. I am almost seventeen, Jack, and I've never even kissed a girl." The boy sighed, looking down at his feet, "Just once, I would like to not be alone for Valentine's Day."
Jack humphed and when Jamie looked up, he was sitting on the window sill with his back to boy. His long arms and legs were folded in a show of defiance, like a little child refusing to eat his greens. It was one of Jack's odd personality quirks that, for all the times he was cool and mature, he could still be a stubborn brat.
Shaking his head at his old friend, Jamie grabbed his coat. If he didn't hurry, he would be late for his first date ever and Martha had never exactly been the patient type. As he opened the door to leave, Jamie said over his shoulder, "I'll see you when I get back."
The door closed and Jack's shoulders slumped. Under his breath, he muttered, "If you still can."
Jamie was growing up much faster than Jack would like. It was a fact of life, but Jack fought the steady passage of time as fiercely as he fought Valentine's Day. He knew the day was coming; the day Jamie would lose his child-like eyes and stop seeing the mischievous Jack Frost. Already, most of the boy's friends could no longer see him. They now thought of him as make-believe, a treasured part of their childhood, but not a real person. In truth, that hadn't bothered Jack too much. Children all around the world could now see him if he wished, but Jamie was special. He was the first to believe in him and Jack didn't want to let him go.
There had to be something he could do to keep Jamie from falling in love, to keep him from kissing a girl. Jack stuck his tongue out in disgust at the thought of kissing. Kissing was not only boring, it was gross. That was why his favorite time to mess with people was right when they were about to kiss. He would do just about anything to stop couples from performing public displays of affection. And he had gotten good at it.
Suddenly, Jack slapped his hand against his forehead as a beautifully simple and painfully obvious answer dawned on him. He was the master of ruined dates, the king of the missed kiss. If he played his cards right, he could save his friend and still have fun in the process.
With a determined glint in his eye, Jack grabbed his crook and jumped from the window sill and out into the cold February night. The chilled night air swept him up high into the sky, his dark blue blazer flapping in the breeze as a mischievous smile pulled at his lips. Jack Frost's war on Valentine's Day had just gotten personal.
It was a week before Valentine's Day and Love was in the air, literally. However, Love was only one of her names. She had many. To some she was Sweet, or Good, or Caring. Now and then she was Charitable and Thoughtful. Sometimes, she was Passionate, when the mood strikes. And to the lucky, she was True. But most of the time, she was simply Lovely.
Dancing from cloud to cloud, Lovely twirled with joy as she sent her little winged cherubs on missions to the world bellow, filling people's hearts with love. This was her favorite time of year. It was a time when everyone, young and old, rich or poor, forgot their petty squabbles and remembered why they loved each other. It was a time for new beginnings and fresh starts. It was a time for love in all its forms and it made her heart sing.
Wrapped in her happiness, dancing across the sky, Lovely did not notice a single frantic cherub as he zipped and dodged in front of her. She could not hear his anxious twitters, chirps or, finally, screeching caws above her own melodious singing. In frustration, the little cherub flew back from her and prepared to take a nose dive. Several of his brethren desperately chirped at him, begging him to reconsider, but he ignored their wise council. He had important news and it was critical that Lovely heard it. So, the little winged creature lifted his head in silent prayer, crossed himself and cannon balled the personification of Love.
It started as a small sound, a screeching noise just outside the range of Lovely's hearing. As it grew steadily louder in volume, Lovely ceased her graceful choreography and looked around. The surrounding cherubs were twittering wildly at her and pointing. Following their frantic gestures, Lovely glanced up only to catch a fleeting glimpse of a screeching, hawkish face right before it slammed into her, flinging her and the hapless cherub twenty-thousand feet to the ground below. A tense silence followed, the remaining cherubs staring slack jawed at the Lovely shaped hole in the clouds.
Lovely groaned as she came too in a quiet wood, a large gap in the foliage marking the path of her decent. Shifting slightly, she rubbed her soar bum, trying to alleviate some of the bruising that was more than likely spreading across her tender rump. She ran a graceful hand threw her soft golden brown hair and frowned as it got caught in a tangle. Leaves and detritus had made a rat's nest of her beautiful hair, making Lovely pout. She hated getting her hair mussed.
A small movement on her lap drew her attention and she looked down. Curled up in a little ball, black wings with white tips folded neatly on his back, was Frank. Lovely let loose a long, aggravated sigh.
Frank was a good cherub, if a little excitable. He insisted that someone had declared war on Valentine's Day, someone who wasn't Her. And for the first decade, she listened to his warnings and observed these "attacks on love." But by the second decade, Lovely found no proof of an offender. To her, the fumbled kisses and ruined dates appeared to be nothing more than a string of bad luck. Apparently, Frank hadn't given up on finding the imaginary culprit like she instructed.
Lucky for Frank, Lovely was also Patient and Kind. Of course, patience always has its limits and she was pretty sure she was reaching hers. Taking three calming breaths, Lovely reached out and patted the little guy on the head.
Sleepily, Frank opened his golden eyes and peered up innocently at his Lady. He, like the other cherubs, looked very little like the chubby babies humans loved to put on their Valentine's Day cards. For one, they were not babies (Lovely had always disapproved of child labor). And a chubby body did not make for easy flying. So, though her cherubs were small with powerful feathered wings and their weapon of choice was the bow and arrow; that was where the similarities ended. Lovely's cherubs were more like miniature young men with the wings of eagles, their avian features standing in complement to their human forms.
"Alright, Frank," Lovely leaned back on her arms and looked the cherub squarely in the eye, "what is it this time?"
Frank's head snapped up and he jumped into the air, only to settle on Lovely's bent knee, head cocked to the side in curiosity. He had expected her to be yelling at him by now, not smiling at him indulgently.
Cautiously, Frank began to recount his tale. Lovely listened quietly while the cherub hopped from one knee to the other, head bobbing as he cooed. Now and then he would snap his wings open dramatically to emphasize his own valor in his tale.
Lovely sighed in frustration. Frank was crowing the same old tune. The mysterious villain was active again and out to destroy Valentine's Day. But Lovely had indulged Frank and his delusions for long enough. After a long weary sigh, she cut off the little cherub's rant, "I've heard quite enough, Frank. I thought I told you to leave the matter alone."
Frank pouted and squawked defiantly. But Lovely held up an authoritative hand, stopping him mid caw, "That's enough. You have been neglecting your duties for far too long. Did you at least remind Mr. Sato that it's his anniversary tonight, like you were supposed to?"
A blush crept over Frank's avian cheeks and he ducked his head, cooing his shame. Cherubs were mischievous and playful by nature, but they took their jobs deadly seriously. They knew what it did to Lovely when they failed.
"I thought so," Lovely shook her head in disappointment. She was going to be feeling that later. It was a hazard of her job. She could feel the blissful love from the billions of people all around the world, but when she failed in her duty; their heartache was like an open wound.
By that point, a number of Lovely's cherub horde had found them and were fluttering around their heads. There screeches and caws were jeers at poor Frank. They too, were tired of his conspiracy theories and his dereliction of duty. In a final effort to justify his actions, Frank frantically squawked at his Lady.
Lovely's eyes widened and she held up her hands for silence. A hush fell over the grove. Only the sound of a distant babbling brook and rustling of folded wings could be heard in the silence. Her eyes narrowed and, voice deadly serious, she asked the hapless cherub, "Can you repeat that?"
Frank squawked self-consciously in the silence, the eyes of Lovely and his brethren boring into him.
"Jamie Bennett. Are you sure?"
Again, Frank squawked, hopping briefly into the air, his feathers slapping against his brown leather jerkin.
This was concerning indeed. Jamie Bennett had been slowly making his way up Lovely's Never Been Kissed List ever since he hit puberty. Not the top, of course. She never looked at the top anymore.
The Never Been Kissed List was an ancient tome, as old as Lovely herself. All those destined for romantic love found their names on the List. She never understood how. It had simply always been. Its powers were unfathomable and its designs were cloaked in mystery. Like the sun always rose in the East and set in the West, the List was immutable in its certainty. It was cruel like that.
To be left on the list for too long was to fail in her duty. And for some reason, Jamie Bennett had been a failure. Every attempt she made to let romantic love into this boy's life had failed and the situation was getting dire. Apparently, Frank had thought so as well and shadowed the boy. Now he believed he knew why the young Bennett was loveless; it was the monster out to destroy Valentine's Day.
Lovely stood up and called to the cherub's in the trees, "Siegfried, are you here?"
A loud screech sounded the affirmative as a cherub with a black leather jerkin and russet colored wings dove from the branch of a gnarled old oak. Holding out a leather clad arm like a skilled falconer, Lovely balanced the cherub as he landed. Siegfried was her most skilled follower. Not in five hundred years had his arrow missed its mark and she could not recall that last time he failed to achieve a kiss. She only ever sent him out on the direst of cases; Jamie Bennett's being the most recent.
Offering a candy heart that read, Be Mine, to the hardened cherub, Lovely asked, "Are Jamie Bennett and Martha Dunbar at the movies as planned?"
Siegfried snatched the paisley pink candy from Lovely's grasp and nodded with a caw as he chomped down on every cherub's favorite treat. It had taken him months of careful planning, comparing personality profiles and finding the right match within the boy's friend circle. Then he subtly pushed the two teenagers together, allowing interest to blossom into a delicate form of crush. The movie tickets had been the icing on the cake, giving the skittish kids a no pressure date on familiar territory.
If Siegfried was a hardened four star general, then Frank was a mall cop.
Lovely glanced over at Frank. He had settled down on a fallen log a little ways off, head bobbing up in down nervously. He knew this was his last chance to prove he wasn't crazy.
"Alright, Frank, I'll go watch over these two," Siegfried's feathers bristled and he screeched at the professional slight. Lovely reached over and scratched him under his chin, cooing soothingly she continued, "I was planning on overseeing their date myself anyway. Jamie Bennett has become a bit of a pet project of mine."
Suitably mollified, Siegfried opened his powerful wings and launched himself into the air. With a flick of Lovely's wrist, her mussed hair disentangled itself and tied back in a taught braid. Beneath her feet, a fluffy cloud materialized and lifted her up off the ground. Gesturing to Frank, Lovely said with an indulgent smile, "Come along, sweetie."
Frank jumped into the air and followed as Lovely's cloud began to rise into the star filled sky. Like leaves being pulled by the wind, the rest of the cherub horde took wing, scattering in their Lady's wake. Stretching out her graceful limbs, Lovely pulled her bow and quiver from the ether. They were ancient things, but deceptively ordinary in appearance. As she secured her quiver of arrows to her back, Frank gave her a quizzical look. He had not seen her dress for the field in nearly half a century.
Lovely noticed Franks questioning stare and smiled at him. Pulling back on the bow's string, testing the tension, she winked at the little cherub, "You guys can't have all the fun."
The tiny cloud zipped through the air, moving faster than any plane made by man. Its goal: an ordinary little town with an ordinary movie theater. But what was to happen that night, under the light of the full moon, would be far from ordinary.