Author's Notes:
Here is a not so happy vignette.
I like to think this is probably a very accurate and realistic headcanon of mine.
SORRY IF I CAN'T WRITE JACK OR ELSA RIGHT. This is fanfiction, I'm not Disney. I cannot write characters perfectly.
Enjoy~
Queen Elsa of Arendelle was growing older every day. Whether Jack could continue to labor painfully under the delusion or not, it was true. The young woman that he had met five years prior was beginning to lurch closer to her mid twenties, and the days that had passed between their kinship were more apparent than ever. The girlish smile that she had once worn had matured into the face of a queen, wearing her elegance as age settled neatly into her high cheekbones. She looked much older than he did now, he could see that. It only caused Jack Frost to realize that as he was stuck an immortal body - seen by so few - that it would soon be time for the queen to pick a suitor. Someone who could enable her happiness and not that of a spirit and embodiment owned by seventeen-year-old boy.
At first, Elsa had been adamant about staying with him, even despite his reminders that what they had couldn't last. But she had been so young then, Jack deduced. Back when he had first told her that she would have to pick someone else eventually and there wasn't another option. The memory felt so real to him that Jack could still vividly recall the way her lips had grazed his in the darkness of her bedchamber, cool fingers probing through his hair to soothe him of his concerns. Even the way that her fingernails had traced through his hairline...
"I will wait for you." She had told him, azure eyes glowing with promise despite the darkness that shrouded her. Her lips touched his, breathing into his mouth as her hands curved around his neck. "Endlessly."
But that was all over now. The kingdom expected her to marry, and since Jack could never be seen by any of those people - he could never give her children, never grow old with her, never die - he watched as his Snow Queen began to change. At first, it had been so subtle. Little altercations as she began to consider that what they had was bound to come to an end. Her helpless pacts were becoming shorter as the days grew. She no longer praised that she would stay with him; wait for him. Instead, her words were like venom that harbored the inside of his mouth like a bad taste when their lips met. Her kisses had grown scarce, only ending on how she would always love him; endlessly.
It wasn't until he had been gone for a little more than a month during November when he had known that there was someone else in the queen's life. Jack had crept up through the castle and towards the glass windows in search of the queen to find her showing a man around the castle. They moved through the passage of the portrait room together, making quiet murmurs of conversation that Jack could not discern. The man that he saw was a tall, lean and built, with wavy dark hair, a shade of stubble, and the nobility of a monarch. Jack could see it behind his smile that was worth more than anything he would ever own himself.
Only when nightfall began to cover the winter lands of Arendelle did Jack finally decide to approach Elsa. She had come to find him, he deduced; sending the guards away from the gravelly courtyard and stating that she wished to be alone. At first, Jack had fought with his inner demons, knowing that this would be the last time that she would see him. Their time had come and passed. But even as he stood up erect from where he had positioned himself on the dark green tower of the castle - anticipating and fearing that moment when she would bade her final farewell to him - he felt more like the boy that he had become as Queen Elsa had grown older. And when he finally shouldered his staff from his hand and glided it down into his hand, where the brisk wintery wind came to greet him as he flew, Jack knew no such bravery when Elsa's eyes met his figure. There was no smile there to welcome him, only the sole expression of determination and reluctance.
His bare feet hit the floor of the gravel with a graceful dive, straightening out his shoulders when he was met with the ground only a handful of feet from where the queen had positioned herself. Elsa did not move a muscle when he rose in front of her, hands clasped tightly together. Her eyes darted to meet his face, unblinking; lips crushed together. When she did not greet him, Jack felt his smile waver as his fingers grasped around the handle of his staff. He kept it close to him for unknowing comfort.
"Hey..." Jack murmured feebly. A chilling wind brushed over the back of his neck, and for the first time, he thought that he could feel goosebumps thrive over his arms. At first, it seemed as though the queen was at a loss at what she should say, but she regained her demeanor as her throat was loudly cleared.
"Jack." Elsa breathed gently. Jack watched her every movement, keeping his gaze trained on her face and her body language. Her fingers wove together, tightening her left hand over her right. But her eyes had fallen, averting in favor of the ground. "I saw you earlier - "
"I know, that's why you're here." Jack tried his best to sound lighthearted when he had pleasantly interjected her sentence. Elsa didn't at all seemed deterred, as if she wished he would do all of the talking... But that didn't stop her mouth from growing rigid when he asked his next question.
"Who is he?"
Silence penetrated the frigid air like a knife rupturing through flesh. At first, Elsa stayed silent. Jack saw that she was beginning to look guilty, but she quickly masked the expression when he quipped his staff over his shoulder and took a single step towards her.
"Prince Stefan, Duke of Gloucester..." Her voice was a murmur of explanation now, knuckles growing white from where she was grasping her hands together. "He's visiting from Denmark."
"Oh..." Jack had been right to theorize that he was a monarch of some kind, but that didn't make it any easier. He was old enough now where jealousy was an infrequent feature of being an immortal spirit, but it didn't stop the frenzy of envy that rippled through each edge of his stomach. His eyes might have grown accusing when he finally lifted his head to sound slightly criminated. "Are you going to marry him?"
"Goodness Jack, I've only known him for a fortnight." Elsa's eyebrows tugged together stubbornly. She showed him great sympathy in that one glance, but it was quickly discarded with when she shook her head. A loose tendril of white-blonde hair escaped from her braid, brushing over her cheek. "I thought you knew me better than to make impulsive decisions."
Jack studied her deeply, biting his lower lip as a flood of dismay wandered through his senses. He allowed another round of stiff quietude to grow between them as snowflakes began to drift down from the sky. Subconsciously, Jack looked up at the dusk that was surrounded in gray clouds. He wondered if it was Elsa who had summoned them in her emotional disarray. In all of that time since she had fought to learn physical control over her emotions, there were still times that she lost that clout; it only bore testimony to the fact that Queen Elsa of Arendelle was a human. And that was a foreign aspect that Jack had scarcely acknowledged, until now.
When Jack tilted his jaw to look at her again, he saw that she was not so young anymore. Physically, she was nearly ten years older than him now. The thought made him shudder involuntarily as a second whiff of wind blew hard against his hair, ruffling it. He couldn't feel the cold, but his hands were growing shaky as he recognized that the time had come for him to let her go.
"... I do know you better than that." Jack finally whispered. Upon realization that sorrow clogged his throat, he made way to shoot her a cheekish grin and detain his pity. "I leave all of the careless decision-making to your sister."
Elsa did not smile in return. In fact, she did not even look at him as her hands formed fists at her sides. He could see a trickle of ice emitting up her fingertips, despite that she was trying hard to hide them...
"What's wrong?"
"You're making this much harder than I thought it would be, Jack." Elsa murmured defeatedly, biting the inside of her lower lip. He had seen her make the gesture many times before, whenever she felt a rush of being subjectively compromised. But as her face began to droop into a somber frown, Jack felt incredibly selfish. He had known from the moment that his feelings had developed for her that eventually, it would end. And there he was, allowing her to vegetate in her own sorrow...
"I'm sorry." Jack meant every word as he came closer to her, keeping his stare trained on her. Elsa looked up at him, blinking once, but she did not shrug away from him when he leaned down enough to impend his face closer to hers. She wasn't much shorter than him, so the effort was minimal.
He tried to smile at her when their eyes met, lips feeling more like rubber as they fought to continue drooping downwards. "I'm not trying to make you change your mind, Elsa."
"Why aren't you?" Elsa asked breathlessly. She reached out to fix his tousled hair, which surprised him. It was a mannerism that she had adapted to over the years, but now it felt more like a woman giving her son a motherly pat on the head. A thought that made Jack internally recoil when her hand retracted to her side and her eyes seared to his like a burn. Her words were smaller after that; reflective, and hardly more than a murmur. "I thought that you would."
Jack turned around abruptly to analyze his own answer to her accusation. He brought his back to face her, confronting the gust of snowflakes that fell into his hair and melted against his skin. For a brief moment, Jack closed his eyes and calculated how much longer they had before they said goodbye, but he gave her his best explanation. The response passed through the gateway of his lips before he could stop it.
"Cinderella, I have lived a hundred years. I have seen people fall in and out of love, cheat and lie..." Jack strolled a little, only altering his destination when he swung backwards and smiled fondly at her. Again, Elsa did not return the sentiment. And so, Jack finished by brushing that lost strand of hair behind her ear, tucking it there. He marveled over her - a grown woman now, looking her part as a queen - as he was happy for her. There was no bitterness, no resentment; only the love that he had felt. And inasmuch, the winter spirit lowered his lips down to her ear and pressed them delicately against the lobe. Elsa stiffened from the touch, yet her chin came to rest against his shoulder as she quivered.
"But you're none of those people." Jack resumed affectionately, closing his eyes as Elsa snugged her face into his cheek. "And I don't have the audacity to try and keep you from being happy."
"I have been happy with you." Elsa corrected him. She reopened her eyes when her face departed from his cheek, frowning deeply.
"I know that." Jack chuckled, shaking his head. He felt a painful surge stretch out over his heart. "But I can't be seen by anyone, and Arendelle needs you to get married. And that's more important."
Elsa did not utter a word for at least a minute. There was a deep part of Jack that wished that she wouldn't, when she pulled entirely out of his arms and looked up at him with a face that told him that she had made up her mind. They both had.
"I'm sorry, Jack." She finally started again. Her eyebrows arched and he thought for second that she might have been fighting back tears. But she was strong; she had always been, and when she swallowed, the wetness of her eyes had gone. That was something that Jack had always admired about her. "I'm sorry that I couldn't keep my promise."
"It's okay..." Jack didn't know if he meant it, but when he smiled at her again and took a step away to widen their distance. "Really."
And when they had finally spoken their words of farewell, Jack could still hear her voice echoing through his ears despite wind that whistled against them while he flew. Even the blizzard that began to storm over Arendelle was not enough for him to forget the last words that the Snow Queen had promised him; and that was a pact that she had kept, even when Jack had thought she wouldn't.
"I will wait for you, Jack Frost. When winter comes again. I will always wait for you, every year; endlessly."
I should probably get a new favorite band.