Frost's entire being felt sore as his eyes slowly blinked open. Due to it hurting so much to exist he chose to not move as much as physically possible before finding out where he currently was. As his eyes gradually scanned the room he realized, much to his initial annoyance, that he had once again landed himself in a hospital bed. And while this was vexing at first, it did mean one pleasant thing.
He was still alive.
The feeling of something shifting forced his vision to turn now to his side, where his eyes widened at the sight of Neo practically curled into him. It was only now that he noticed one of her hands holding tightly on to his, as though it was her way of keeping him anchored to the spot until she was awake. Not that he would be going anywhere anytime soon, however. He had too many questions to be in a hurry to leave.
The sound of a door opening filled his ears, his head quickly spinning once more to see who was currently entering the room. That proved a mistake as a light groan escaped his throat while his face scrunched up for a few moments, the pain of moving too quickly causing a brief but painful headache to pass through his skull. As the pain subsided, his eyes reopened to their normal view as he spotted Emerald standing in the doorway with both hands firmly planted over her mouth and her eyes wide. Not one to pass on the opportunity, Frost did what he did best.
"Good call. Wouldn't want any bugs to get in when your mouth is wide open." It didn't come out as gracefully as he had hoped, his voice sounding like a mix between gravel and sandpaper. There was no way he was passing on the opportunity, however.
Emerald frowned as her hands fell away, though it was conflicted with the light smile her face also held as she continued to stand in the doorway. "I was trying to stop myself from making noise and waking Neo, you ass. This is the first time she's managed to sleep since we brought you here."
Frost's eyes turned to Neo with a look of concern before he turned back to Emerald with the first questions on his mind. "Speaking of which, where are we and how long have I been out?"
"A hospital in Atlas for the first; the better part of two days for the second." Was her curt response. "It took us the better part of a day flying at faster speeds to reach Atlas as soon as possible once Neo reappeared with you half-dead. The blond guy used his Semblance to try and heal you a bit by transferring some Aura, but you were still in pretty bad shape despite that. The doctors said you were lucky to still be alive."
Frost nodded, simply to acknowledge her response, before he took a deep breath prior to his next question. "And the Grimm?"
Emerald caught on immediately, no hesitation keeping her held back for even a second. "As far as they can tell…" Frost waited with baited breath. "Gone."
The world suddenly felt thousands of times lighter as Frost processed the words that Emerald spoke. Could it ACTUALLY be true? Was he finally free of the thing that had threatened to turn his entire world upside-down and caused him nothing but problems for years prior to their forced living arrangements?
The sudden shifting of Neo at his side once again caused his head to swivel to her position, though a bit slower this time to avoid a headache as much as possible.
"Is that you, Em?" Neo groggily asked as her eyes blinked open slowly. "Back with breakfast, already?" A light yawn escaped her throat as she stretched her limbs carefully.
"God, you're adorable."
All sets of eyes other than Frost snapped to his face as he blinked for a few seconds, only now realizing what had just come out of his mouth.
"Oh fuck, did I just say that out loud?"
"Cobalt!" His body suddenly felt new pain as Neo practically leapt at him, her arms tightly encircling his neck as she held onto him with a strength he didn't know she possessed. After holding that pose for a few moments, she leaned back to sharply flick his forehead with a stern look on her face. "I swear, the next time you try and save the day like that I'll make sure you aren't able to escape my sight for even a second."
Due to their close proximity, Frost leaned forward slightly to give Neo a peck on the lips before leaning back with a smirk at Neo's now flustered expression. "Is that a promise? Because I don't think I could leave your side again, anyways."
"Oh god." Emerald's voice caused both of their heads to twirl in her direction. "I think I might be lactose-intolerant because that was WAAAAY too cheesy."
"Tough shit." Frost retorted from his current placement. "I had to thank her for saving my life SOMEHOW. Plus it was way too easy."
"Whatever." Emerald's usual snarky response made Frost's smile grow just a little bit more as he realized just how peaceful things were at that moment in time. A quick nudge of his shoulder drew his attention back to Neo as she gave him a questioning look.
"Was that just you trying to be funny, or was that serious? For once I couldn't tell."
Frost just stared at Neo for a moment before his face contorted with a light chuckle. "Completely serious. After everything that's happened I don't think I want to imagine what things would be like without you always there to back me up."
Neo's face could have lit up the entire room on its own due to how much it seemed to glow in that moment before she leaned in to give Frost a kiss of her own. The two stayed like that for a few seconds before the sound of someone clearing their throat filled the air.
"Still here, you two. Need me to put up a sign or something so that someone doesn't walk in and get scarred for life?"
"As tempting as that sounds," Frost said with a joking tone to which Neo gave him a swat on the shoulder with a smile of her own. "I am way too sore to do anything except lie here for the time being. Aura can only work so fast after all."
"Suit yourself. I'll go let the others know that you're doing alright and to give you some peace for a bit to catch some sleep. It's not like you're going anywhere anytime soon." Emerald moved to step out into the hall once again, her hand resting on the doorknob to pull it shut behind her. A brief pause as the door was nearly shut told the other two that she wasn't quite done as her head poked back into the room.
"For the record," she paused for a moment as she searched for the right words. "It's good to have you back. For real this time."
Frost nodded to the green-haired girl. "Thanks Em."
A few days later, Frost was finally allowed to leave following a few final checkups and a long-winded conversation with the adults. As it turned out, the Grimm that had once been inside him had either been entirely erased from the sheer amount of power he had flooded his body with when he grabbed the power coils, or was so drastically weakened that it was unnoticeable. The odds were high that Frost's initial resilience to the foreign presence would simply force the being out entirely if anything remained, but they would need to make sure to check in every once in a while to make sure it wasn't starting to reemerge.
When he finally saw the others after recovering for a bit, he had practically been glomped to death by Ruby when she dove at him for a hug. The only things that had protected him were a quick snap of the wrist from Yang to hold her sister back, and a possessive look from Neo to all other persons that made some of them slightly uneasy – Frost included after a while – and avoided doing a similar thing following the reaction to Ruby's welcome. Following that apologies were shared, friendships were reaffirmed, and everyone walked away feeling lighter and happier than they had in a while.
As it also turned out, the citizens of the village that had been converted by the Grimm hidden in their bodies had been able to eventually recover as well, though it took much longer with how progressed it had gotten. Frost's intervention and progressive application of his Semblance, much like he had done with Neo the night Beacon had fallen, helped greatly in getting them all back on the path to recovery even if they might be slightly disfigured in some ore extreme cases.
Sure, Salem and Cinder were both still out there somewhere. But the plot to infect the populace with Grimm had been foiled ad everyone was safe for the time being. Even if it was only a temporary peace. It was still just that. Because even if it was a brief one, they all had…
A happy ending.
Well...that's it. It may be a bit of a cliche ending, but I've always found myself to be a bit of a sucker for those. I could have had it be a bit more tragic or a bit more sad, but the amount of stuff that had happened earlier on made me feel like giving them some semblance of peace was practically necessary.
What I will also say is this - thank you.
I've been working on this story and it's predecessor for nearly three full years. The fact that between the two of them I've managed over 75 chapters (some definitely better than others) and nearly 250k words is just incredible. The reviews and support I've received have been nothing short of heartwarming and amazing, as I initially started this as just a passion project that needed to be made. Even to those silent viewers that simply came in every once in a while to read the newest post or catch up if they joined later on mean the world to me. Ever view, every favorite, every follow meant that I was doing something right.
But now I have to bring the sad news that this is also the end of this tale. At least for the foreseeable future. Maybe one day a new idea will pop into my head and I'll come back to this world to spin another tale. But until then, just know that this was also possible because of all of you. While writing for me is fun, having an audience to write for is just that much better.
For those that don't already know, I AM still working on my My Hero Academia story if you wanted to take a look over there for something else to read. But at that, I will leave you all with a fond farewell and a sincere thank you.
