Elsa slowly opened her eyes with a yawn. Sitting up she looked around the room with a confused expression, not recalling going to her room last night. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't remember how she got into her bed. She clearly remembered training with Jack for most of the day, sitting down next to him when she needed a break and asking him what he thought so far. But after that, nothing. She didn't even remember if he answered her question. Getting out of bed she noticed that she was still wearing the same clothes that Jack had made her the previous day. Feeling even more confused, she decided that the only way she would get any answers was if she asked Jack. She quickly fixed her hair that had fallen down during the night and then made her way out of her room and down the stairs of the palace. As she reached the bottom she noticed how quiet everything was, almost as if she was there alone.
"Jack," Elsa called out as she made her way to the courtyard. Looking around from the door she saw that there was no one out there. Going back inside, she went to the front door to see if he was out that way, or if there were any signs that he had left.
"Jack," Elsa called out again as she opened the front door. Instead of a response from Jack, Elsa saw Marshmallow sitting up from his spot at the bottom of the steps as he turned to look at her.
"Good morning Marsh," Elsa said with a soft smile. Marsh waved at her with a happy expression.
"Have you seen Jack this morning?" Elsa asked as she took a few steps outside. Marsh simply shrugged his shoulders at her question indicating that he had no idea where Jack was.
Elsa furrowed her brow as she looked up in thought. "Alright then, thank you Marsh," Elsa said as she made her way back inside the palace.
Once she closed the door, she leaned back on it as she continued to try to remember if Jack had said anything about leaving. Maybe he's in his room, she thought as she walked back over to the staircase. As she reached the bottom step she suddenly heard the sound of a strong wind blowing from out in the courtyard. Thinking maybe that was Jack coming back, Elsa quickly went back outside. Looking around, she again saw that it was empty even though she swore she heard a noise coming from out there. As she turned to go back inside she was suddenly knocked forward slightly from something cold and round hitting her back. She turned back around and scanned the courtyard with widened eyes when she realized she was just hit with a snowball.
"Jack Frost you did not just throw a snowball at me!" Elsa said loudly as she continued to look around for the source of the attack. Before she even had the opportunity to move further out into the courtyard, another snowball came racing at her. This time she had just enough time to make a wall of ice to block the snowball before it hit her.
"This isn't funny Jack," Elsa said with some annoyance in her voice, even though deep down she couldn't deny that she was happy that he didn't just decide to leave her here. As she continued to look around she started to hear laughter from up above her. Looking up she saw Jack standing on the end of a balcony, looking down at her with a amused grin on his face.
"Get down here Jack," Elsa said sternly as she narrowed her eyes at the young man.
"Alright alright, you got me," Jack responded as he jumped off the balcony, he created a gust of wind to slow his decent so that he had a smooth landing.
"I just couldn't help it when I saw that my room was right up there," Jack said in between another chuckle. Elsa continued to glare at him before she crossed her arms and turned her back to him with a small huff.
Jack stopped laughing when he saw that she didn't look to amused. "Hey, you're not mad are you?" Jack asked as he started to walk towards her. "C'mon, it was just a joke, I'm sorry," he said as he closed the distance between them. "Elsa..." Jack said as he reached out to touch her shoulder.
Just before his hand made contact, Elsa quickly turned around and launched a snowball right at his face, the surprise causing him to fall back onto the ground. "Apology accepted, although I'm a little surprised that you fell for the I'm angry at you act." Elsa said with her arms still crossed and an accomplished smirk on her face.
Jack quickly wiped the snow off his face and looked up at her with widened eyes. "That was very sneaky," Jack said in a dull tone as he stood back up.
"Oh, and what you did wasn't?" Elsa countered with a raised eyebrow.
"Touché," Jack said with a small laugh. "So how ya feeling? You passed out pretty hard yesterday." Jack said.
"Oh ya," Elsa began, remembering why she was looking for Jack in the first place. "I'm fine, but what happened? I remember stopping for a break, and then waking up in my bed." She with a confused expression.
Jack ran a hand through his hair as he his suspicion was confirmed. She really didn't hear anything he said about using more of her power, he knew that he would have to bring it up again, but just not right now at least. "Well you fell asleep while we were sitting and I sorta...picked you up and carried you to your room." Jack said slowly as he remembered Elsa's reaction the last time he picked her up.
Elsa started to give Jack a dull glare and was about to ask him what she said about picking her up, before Jack quickly spoke up again. "In my defense, I tried to wake you up and I couldn't, and wasn't going to just let you sleep outside." Jack reasoned affirmatively.
Elsa softened her expression when she saw that he really was just trying to look out for her. "Ok, thank you," Elsa said with a small smile.
"Anytime," Jack replied with a smile before he put on a mischievous grin as he thought of a good way to get her back for the fake mad stunt she pulled.
"Yea I mean you were really asleep, I haven't heard snoring that loud in a while." Jack said with a smirk.
Elsa's eyes widened and she let out a small gasp as she put her hand up to her mouth. "I don't snore!" She said firmly.
"Sounded like snoring to me," Jack replied teasingly.
Elsa couldn't tell if he was joking or not. She spent so much time alone, especially when she was sleeping, that she really didn't know if she snored or not. She pointed her finger at Jack and put on a firm expression. "Queens don't-" She began before her stomach let out a loud growl causing her to stop her sentence.
Jack looked from Elsa's stomach and then back to her face with a raised eyebrow. "A loud snorer and the stomach of a lumberjack, I'm certainly learning a lot about the Queen of Arendelle." Jack said with a grin.
"Oh shut up, I just didn't get to eat anything after we finished practicing yesterday." Elsa responded as she turned to look away from Jack so that she could hide the blush that was forming due to her unsightly stomach noises.
Jack let out a chuckle as he walked around her. "You're right you didn't. So how about I stop teasing you, we get something to eat and then get back practicing?" Jack said with a calm smile.
"Fine by me," Elsa responded while she held her stomach to try to muffle any other sounds as the two walked back into the palace.
The rest of afternoon passed with Elsa continuing to practice the exercise that Jack had given her under his watchful eye. This time even Marsh had left his usual spot in the front of the palace to watch Elsa practice. But just like yesterday, she was still having trouble making any real progress due to still being too nervous to really use her power. Again, every time Jack would suggest using more, she would just brush it off. As time went on, Jack could tell that she was getting frustrated at her lack of success, she could barely throw one snowball without it falling apart, let alone throw continuously like Jack had.
"Uh..why is this so difficult, I'm keeping myself focused but I just can't get it," Elsa said with frustration as she dropped the snowballs she had made.
Jack watched her with sorry expression before he out a low sigh, knowing that she was not going to like what he had to say. "You're afraid," Jack began slowly, trying to not make her any more upset. "I can see it. I saw it when you protested coming here to practice, I saw it when you didn't want to rebuild the chandelier, and I can see it now." Jack said as he walked up to her. "What happened that made you so afraid?" He asked softly while looking into her eyes.
Elsa looked back into his brown eyes for a moment before looking off to the side. "You heard what happened." She said quietly.
"No, that's not it," Jack started as he took hold of her hands to make her look back at him. "You stopped the winter your powers made and brought back summer. No, this is something else, something much more terrify that's causing you to hold back." He said sternly.
Elsa pulled her hands back and turned around, taking a few steps away from him as her mind went back to the frozen fjord. "I don't want to talk about it." She said firmly as she kept her back to him.
"Whatever it is Elsa, you have to let it go, you'll never be at peace with your powers if you don't." Jack said, trying to convince her to listen to him.
Elsa closed her eyes as she pictured sitting on the frozen fjord, thinking Anna was dead as Hans prepared to strike her. "Just stop Jack, you wouldn't understand," she said, wishing that Jack would drop it and just let her go back to concealing herself.
"Then make me understand," Jack pleaded, trying to not get worked up himself. "I can't help you if you don't let me." He said.
"Enough Jack," Elsa said with frustration as she started to walk away, trying her best to stay in control of her emotions.
Jack began to quickly follow after her. "You're to amazing of a person to lock away. I can help you, what happened that made you so afraid of yourself?" Jack asked, frustration in his voice as well. He didn't want to push her but he also didn't want her to be living in constant fear.
Elsa could hear the sound of ice on metal as she remembered turning around and seeing her sisters body shielding her...a body that was completely frozen. Elsa's eyes went wide as fear overtook her. "I said enough!" She shouted as she turned around. Her hand wiped out as she turned sending large ice spikes straight at Jack.
Jack's eyes widened in surprise as he saw razor sharp spikes coming right for him. He barely had enough time to bring up a wall of ice to block them as they crashed around him. Once they broke apart, Jack lowered the wall he made and look to Elsa, she was looking at him with a horrified expression at what she just did. She had her hand up to her mouth as small tears formed in the corner of her eyes.
"I'm sorry," she breathed out as she turned and ran back into the palace.
"Elsa..." Jack yelled as he reached his arm out towards her. He wanted to go after her but he knew that it would only make things worse. He could hear the sound of her shoes clicking on the ice before he heard the sound of an ice door slamming shut.
Marsh looked to where Elsa ran off with a solemn expression before he looked to Jack with sad eyes. He may not have been the biggest fan of Jack, but he could tell that the young man was upset by what just happened.
Jack looked up at the sky as he let out a sad sigh. "Way to go Jack," he said sadly to himself.
Elsa slammed the door to her room closed before she laid down in her bed. She wiped away a few tears as she looked up at the ceiling. She wasn't mad at Jack, she was mad at herself for once again not being able to control her power. He just wanted to help me and I attacked him, she thought. Even if it wasn't on purpose, it still didn't make her feel any better. She knew that he didn't mean to upset her and that he was really just trying to help her.
"If I could just accept it and stop keeping everything bottled up, then maybe..." she said quietly to herself. As her mind continue to wonder, her eyes started to get heavy from emotional exhaustion, and before she knew it, she drifted off to sleep.
A little conflict before the Jelsa!