7

Hiding And Seeking

Elsa

"Who are you?" I asked, but I knew even before he replied what his answer would be; for I'd long since suspected his near presence. Not because the room instantly felt colder with him in it but because I'd always known he was out there somewhere - nipping at noses and painting patterns of fern and frost on the windowpanes.

He was somewhere until he was before my very eyes, leaving us both at a sudden loss for words as his dumbstruck expression mirrored mine and his brilliant blue eyes narrowed as if he was trying to make sense of me. But what he could make sense of he grinned broadly at, revealing mouthful of pearly-whites that glistened even in the dark.

At length he spoke, and though it was with sheer disbelief his voice retained a sense of tenderness in his words that made it suddenly tempting to fall asleep to as easily as if it were a lullaby. And I knew from then on that I wanted nothing more then for his voice to be the last thing I fell asleep with at night and the first thing I woke up with in the morning, and that if I ever had the choice of who spoke my name last it would undoubtedly be him. "You can see me?"

I nodded without a moment's hesitation, which both thrilled and frightened me that I was somehow so comfortable in a stranger's company. But he somehow wasn't a stranger. To me, he'd felt like someone I'd known from afar without ever having lain eyes on, and yet many times had I seen him before; he'd just been hiding all too well.

He laughed to himself at my response, softly at first and then almost hysterically as everything from his face to his posture, which was agressively crooked where he knelt on the bench, seemed to light up in the dark. And from there he leapt into the air where he, (much to my surprise), remained hovering and performed a series of somersaults followed by a jubilant shout or two while I anxiously watched from the floor and even attempted to prevent his fall whenever he purposefully descended a few feet before ascending once more even though I was well aware that I couldn't carry his weight. It was when he pecariously began to sway from my chandelier that I was obliged to ask it of him to maintain minimal noise for fear of causing damage or alerting an employee of the evening duty.

The ecstasy still burned intensely in his eyes underneath his tousled silver hair long after he'd landed, which seemed to grow of its own accord without either a purpose or an agenda and curled around his ears. His hand was cool against mine when he held it in his and carefully traced his fingers along the creases in my palm as if he was either trying to memorize what skin felt like or convince himself that he could actually touch and be touched.

"You can see me." He quietly repeated, as if the more he said it the truer it became, when his eyes bore so heavily into mine that I suddenly felt exposed and had to look away. But not before blushing slightly at which he graciously smiled, which only made my cheeks redden even more so, and I suddenly felt dangerous. Almost as if all this emotion was too much for one person to feel, and from which I quickly needed a distraction.

"How did you do that?" I asked without looking at him, but I didn't need to because already I felt the grin spreading in his lips and mischief glinting in his irises.

"Do what?"

I made myself look at him then, which was made easier by the solace he seemed to offer in the twinkle of his kind eyes. And seeing this, I inhaled deeply and steeled my nerves before mustering forth the small but steady voice I needed to say what I did next.

"Fly."

He offered me another grin, one even wider and toothier than the last, and his hand with it. "I can show you if you'd like your Highness." He said with a gracious bow at the waist. And with his words I caught a brief whiff of his breath, which smelled sweetly of peppermint and cinnamon as if Christmas had come early this year in his mouth.

I giggled at his mock-chivalry, which along with his irresistable charismatic charm was spell-binding, and just barely had I composed myself when I took his hand and curiously watched as a sharp gust of wind burst through the window with a swift flourish of the staff he held in his other hand. But little did I realize it had swept us up with it until I began to feel my feet leaving the floor. I clung tightly to the cloak draped across his broad shoulder where I hid my face in fright, but whether it was of the height or the fall that came after the rise I couldn't tell.

He must have caught the quiet gasp that fled my lips and felt the tension in my furled fists because almost instantly did his grip tighten in even the slightest as he whispered, "Open your eyes Princess, I won't let you fall."

Slowly, my grip on his arm loosened and left only the faintest of nail marks in his pale skin, which quickly faded as I opened my eyes to find the floor far below us. A lump formed far down in the back of my throat, which made it all the more effort to swallow before I was able to soothe my nerves enough to extend my arms out to either side as we veered the corner and looped around the chandelier more than once at a moderate pace.

I glanced up in time to catch a glimpse of the curve in his lips and twinkle in corner of his eye as our pace gradually increased before I was caught and bashfully averted my eyes. Yet I could still feel his smile long after I'd looked away, especially when ice spiralled from the tip of his staff in silver tendrils, which erupted into a flurry of snowflaked before my awestruck eyes.

In my palms I cradled the delicate flakes, which remained frozen by my touch, and studied them closely to discover that their particular design vastly differed from mine. They were more silver than blue and smoother around the edges. But it was the sincere hand by which they were constructed that really set them apart as if each snowflake was an aspect of who he was.

The snowflake was whisked from my palm as we darted throughout the room, compelling me to grasp his sleeve once more just when he whispered against my platinum locks, "Hold on."

Before I could even consider bracing myself, made a direct plummet for the floor where he carefully eased me onto my feet but not without first assisting me to properly balance as I endeavored to familiarize myself with standing once again on firm ground.

I brushed my ruffled locks from my eyes and wound them back into my plait while he praised my apparent hidden talent for flying, compliments to which I could barely muster a timid reply of gratitude. I was quicker to retreat back inside myself than I'd thought as silence suddenly fell between us and soon even the distant howl of a lone wolf could be heard from beyond my window, to which the shutters flapped noisily against the frame and I would have shut them if my hands hadn't been so caught up in squirming incessantly behind my back. I would have spoken too if only I knew what to say. But I seemed to be at a loss for words as the moment's ecstasy seemed to ebb from my grasp.

But he seemed to know exactly which words to select in order to paint over the unpleasantness. "Well," he said as he raked five long fingers through his silver hair. "I suppose I had better let you rest Princess."

"Elsa!" I blurted before he could turn away. I swallowed the thick lump still obstructing the back of my throat as the words slowly found their way to my lips. "My name is Elsa."

A smile curled his mouth then; slowly at first and then all at once. And it was all at once that something seemed to lift from my chest in even the slightest - something heavy and winged that I hadn't realized had been there so long until it was partially gone.

"Well Elsa, my name is Jack. Jack Frost."

Jack Frost. The name suited him as much as it was meant for no one else. And it was a name I almost told him I already knew but didn't quite know how - he wasn't a fairytale or a mere myth after all. He was larger than life itself and sometimes there just weren't words for treasures such as he was.

"I'll be back in the morning then." He said as he knelt before me and gave my hand one last squeeze. It was as I relished his ever so gentle touch that I snuck a quick but meticulous glance at his eyes, which, if you looked closely at, had the faint pattern of a snowflake printed around his dark pupil.

He released my hand then and sauntered to the window, but before he could fly into the night and beyond from which he might never return I barely whispered, "Wait."

He was at my disposal in no time and awaited my bidding with baited breath and an eager light in his eyes that I'd never before seen on anyone. Not even my parents, who never gave me that look - they had at one time but that was then. This was now. Now I was at worst a perilous monster and at best a mystery beyond solving in their eyes. But when Jack looked at me it was as if I was being seen for the first time since this endless charade of hide and seek began. And it occurred to me that perhaps all this time I wasn't hiding too well; maybe, just maybe I only needed the right seeker.

"Will-will you stay with me?" I managed to enunciate clearly enough that he heard but quiet enough that the wolf's cries could still be heard some miles away.

"Of course Elsa," he said so firmly it was as if he believed in his words as much as I did him. And I couldn't appear to help the slight flush that rose in my cheeks at the mere sound of my name spoke from his lips in his voice. "Always."

Into bed I crawled with him following close behind as he carefully drew the covers around my neck. Sleep weighed heavily in my eyelids the moment my head was lain on the pillow and I managed to drift off without difficulty with my last glimpse being of Jack sitting at the foot of my bed. And I realized all at once that, for the first night in a long time, I wasn't afraid for when sleep consumed me.