Hello loves! These are not my characters. I do not own any of them but I can play with them and hope you like what I do!


He could hear the tick of the grandfather clock as its mechanical heart wound and clicked in a never ending pattern. The pace not ever changing, always moving forward. It was the sound he had become accustomed to during the sleepless days and nights.

He stepped with bare pale feet, padding softly across the wooden floors and through the entrance of his temporary home. There on the late autumn evening, he let the wind lift him up, it's cold kiss reminding him of what he was.

Jack had been the spirit of winter for many hundreds of years. He had watched with weary eyes as the young grew old and turned to dust, as the world changed from earth and sky to metal and smog. Even with his place among the Guardians, he felt the weight of hopelessness tear at his heart. He was supposed to bring laughter to children, but within the years after the battle with Pitch, he found the loneliness seep slowly into his soul. He had reveled in being seen and loved by the children, but soon he watched as they grew. Some travelled and most found love and started living a life that would never be Jacks. He watched them move on, embracing their life and their loves.

He couldn't remember what touch felt like, even when he was Jackson Overland he had been uninterested in intimacy. Caring for his sister and ailing mother had been his only priority. He was raised in a different time, a whole different world. He had only been a boy then, one who had just bloomed onto awkward teen territory, as the youth would say today. Ah fuck, He even sounded old.

He drifted above the familiar city wishing he had known love, had experienced the passion he saw. But it was more than that. It was a loss of life he was beginning to feel, almost like he had been mourning what he could have done.

But now, as he sat on the windows ledge outside a hospital window, he wished he could have only a tenth of what he was watching unfold.

Jaime, his old friend and very first believer, was softly pacing the warm colored room. Jack couldn't hear him through the thick glass though he could tell the young man was speaking softly to the tiny bundle that lay in his arms. Cupcake, who had grown tall and beautiful, lay smiling in the metal bed, her raven hair still a spikey mess about her head. She had always held onto her curves. But she had become kind and artistic, writing stories of their adventures and helping many children believe in the winter spirit. Jack could see why Jaime had fallen in love with her.

Jack was happy for them. He really was. It was the natural next step in most people's lives.

All except Jack.

He pushed away from the window with a silent goodbye. His friends will always believe in Jack Frost but the years will pass and so will they. Like the tics of a clock.

He decided, as he had been often doing, to follow the north wind up and across a long barren snow covered land. The red and gold remains of the setting sun silhouetted North's ornate palace. Its spires and turrets rose in spiraling glory as the winter spirit neared. He could make out furry shapes of the yetis, as they waved to him.

He would ask the big man what to do. How to bring back the joy he had felt.

She was alive with crimson curls, flaming like hellfire behind her as she crashed through the thick underbrush of the lush Scottish landscape. She could feel the earth give way for her, as if she was commanding it.

Her black filly hauled across a fallen log, lifting her off the beasties back for an instant, but it was in this moment that she felt she was flying. She closed her striking blue eyes and held her arms wide, but as soon as it came, she was back on horseflesh and thundering along. There was nothing in the world more freeing than soaring through the lowlands. But her goal was higher, farther than she'd ever been before.

Merida had, with great trouble, convinced her parents to let her come to camp a week before they were to arrive. Her brothers were growing fast but it was hell to travel with them. She had assured her mother that she'd have camp set and game caught by the weeks end. The fact that her mother was with child had helped her cause. The queen had been so stressed and she wished to spend the rest of her pregnancy with her kin. So she was to stay the winter in the north with the boys, while Merida ran the kingdom with her father. It had been agreed that until she find a husband, Merida would have to learn the workings.

But mostly she enjoyed the idea of her freedom. Not having to worry about her mother nagging her, though she does it much less since the bear incident.

It was with this thought that the princess slowed Angus down to trot. The land had grown much narrower as grass gave way to gravel. The incline began slowly, with plenty of green forest plants for travelers not to notice, but she knew these lands. She had been taught of the dangers of the highlands as both the land and people were often unpredictable.

The large mount tread carefully, each step planted on solid ground. Above her, the sky had turned to gold with scarlet clouds that settled on the horizon.

With her instincts fresh and her heart full and happy, she found a clearing. It was wide and strong with no more than a dozen trees surrounding it. She would set a string about them and tie it to a bell, just in case any wolves decided she looked like a mighty fine meal. She laughed at the thought. She was Merida, the famed princess who fought like a man and shot better than one.

She went about clearing and making a fire, just as her father taught her. Her mother insisted she wear a gown over her leather riding pants, but now, with no person to judge her, she tore off the soft chemise and gown. Ach, if her mother's Kin saw here, they would die of fear. She laughed to herself as she hefted piles of twigs. It was mindless work, but it excited her none the less. It was her first glimpse of true independence. And laird, was it heady!


So I'm going to try and keep this as canon as possible while still having them together. The good news is that there is magic at work in both their worlds and story lines so I'm going to take creative license and play!

Reviews are always loved and saved and reread for confidence!

-MoonandWinter