In which an OC wasn't supposed to be in the timeline meets Jack Frost and life snowballs from there.
Slice of life. Story of self-discovery, friendship, and overcoming real-life problems with the help of a specific winter spirit.
Set beginning 3 years before RoTG. AU.
Disclaimer: Purely fanfiction
Kyo figured that she had a pretty normal life. An average girl if a bit too much on the smart side. Nothing major though; everyone had their strengths and weaknesses.
She was having a normal day until...well.
That is until she's tripping over some ice on the sidewalk and dragging down an innocent stranger to the frosty asphalt with her and Jack can't wrap his head around why he's suddenly being squished-
Fast forward weeks later she's used to the spirit floating around her room while she watches TV from underneath two comforters and an unseemingly amount of weighted blankets.
…
Fleeting Meetings
….
The early signs of winter were beginning to set into Burgees. The leaves were slowly turning beautiful shades ranging from crusted browns to muted reds. Chilly winds blow in through Kyo's cracked window. Some children are grouped together across the street playing some game that involved paper planes. They're playful and from her vantage point in the window, she really wants to join them.
Kyo but she's a teenager and too scared of being judged to play pretend with a bunch of kids so she stays in the safety of her room.
Though it doesn't truly feel like her room yet. Too new and unfamiliar. And the unpacked boxes from a recent move only highlighted that.
There isn't a knock on her door before it is opened. Her mom simply waltzes in and she does not mind. Simply turns her gaze from outside.
"Kyo darling. Your papa is working late tonight so he won't be joining us for dinner." A gentle hand is settled onto her shoulder because her mom knows she's a stickler for physical contact. "So it'll just be us two, okay?"
It's fine because she knows that he's working to provide for them and that with the recent move he has to establish a good reputation at the hospital. Well maybe not fine, but she understands.
A prickle of disappointment still shines through that her mother quickly catches and distracts her only child with questions about her school life.
She shrugs after thinking for a long while. "I've made some acquaintances. I'm at the top of my class already."
Kyo doesn't mention that some of her classmates aren't happy she came there and decided to be smarter than them. Or how she sometimes gets mean comments about her weight. Especially not the comments about her hair.
Mrs. Kusanagi beams in pride at her daughter's words with a kiss on the forehead and parting words that she'll make a quick lunch.
When another cool breath sneaks into her room only minutes later, Kyo shivers before eagerly looking at the trees. Urging the leaves to fall and the blue sky to darken as if to speed up time.
It goes without saying that she is excited for winter in a new state that is known to have sparkling white snow days.
She doesn't quite know what she's going to do to enjoy the awaited snow because she doesn't feel comfortable enough to hang out after school with her friends and her parents are at work more often than at home.
Kyo spends the rest of her time before lunch is called thinking of the many ways she can enjoy the upcoming weather by herself.
She does this all while watching the children below and the occasional group of friends chatting away in their own worlds.
The first sign of snow is only a prologue to the mass that the air bumps on Burgess overnight.
Grumbling neighbors shoveled snow blocked in cars frantically in a rush for work while some children played in the mass of white.
Kyo's not brave enough to ask to play with them so she settled for the next best thing.
Out on her balcony, she's dressed appropriately for the weather and seated on her knees in the snow. Kyo can't help but feel excited.
She loves how it crunches at her every moment. The sun has come out and while in Texas the snow would be slush and melted by now; here it's still below freezing and the sun makes the white mass on her balcony sparkle so beautifully.
Kyo can't be faulted for attacking the new experience. Of course, she should have worn mittens sooner and the bottom of the snowman should have been bigger- she steadily learns from her mistakes though.
After about half an hour of manipulating the snow, she's breathing puffs of white air and rubbing her mitted palms together to create some heat.
Then her mother is calling from somewhere inside her room. "Darling, come inside and get warmed up."
Kyo has the sudden urge to show off the meager snowman that is tipping dangerously. "Mom, look what I made! Isn't it pretty?"
The woman is smiling softly down at her excited teenager in amusement and love. She doesn't have to heart to tell her daughter that a snowman isn't supposed to be so...uneven. "It does have a pretty white color." Then she's helping Kyo off the snow and dusting off the bunches that Kyo misses before setting back into the house.
That's when she notices Kyo's wet legs and shivers. She puckers her lips in disapproval, gently chiding her child. "You can catch a cold from kneeling in the snow for too long. It melts and seeps into your clothes. Let's get you changed and warmed up."
Even though her mom warns her against letting herself get so cold again; Kyo spends even longer outside on her balcony trying to make a proper snowman the next day.
Eventually, she accomplishes a sparkling mess that isn't leaning so much but is still recognizable as a snowman.
This time she has nobody to show off to because there had been a pile-up car accident in the city. Apparently losing control from the black ice on the roads.
Kyo doesn't feel like walking back into her empty house so she decides to make another one.
As the weeks pass and the temperature continues to steadily drop in Burgees, Pennsylvania, Kyo thinks the holiday spirits are considered taboo words at her school.
Simply because nobody has mentioned even a peep of the name 'Santa'. They only discuss what their parents are getting them.
Being high schoolers, things like Santa and the Easter Bunny are considered childish. Everyone knows that Santa isn't real and that it's just your parents putting gifts underneath the tree.
To a degree, Kyo agrees because the idea of Santa has too many faults to be truly plausible but she does believe in other spirits.
Though she's very careful not to mention this because she already doesn't have friends, to begin with. She does not want to be marked as the baby who still believes in kiddy things.
It's a week before school lets out for the Christmas break when Kyo first unknowingly meets her favorite spirit. She is on an errand to the convenience store not that far from her residence when she sees a hooded figure tap a stick (no a staff) against a lamp post and it literally freezes.
Right before her eyes from across the street.
She is letting loose a startled laugh as a man crossing the road titters haphazardly when streaks of ice freeze the roads. He is cursing a storm and protective parents are ushering their children down the roads.
One even covers his daughter's ears before cursing at the man to shut the fu-
Then the figure is flying away and she loses track of the spirit when a gust of chilly wind slaps her in the face and her eyes water; blurring her vision and her face stings slightly.
None of that amounts to the excitement as heat rushes through her body. She doesn't notice the boy that shrinks slowly around her because she's just standing like a looney in the middle of the street looking at a stupid lamp post like it sprouted wings.
Winter is in full swing and her parents are at the hospital. Again.
The Christmas lights still haven't been put up yet, the indoors barely decorated, and two bags were left shoved into a corner at the back of her closet.
The roads have long been salted or shoveled to clear the ice by the time Kyo ventures outside of her cozy home. She's dressed appropriately and her hair braided back into cornrows this time so it doesn't tangle too bad in the winds.
It's not too far from her block that a snowball hit her on the shoulder. Turning a group of kids by the age of twelve or so are waving her over with huge smiles.
"Hey come play with us!"
She'd never had a snowball fight before with a group of kids younger than her. And for a while, it seemed to be going good until Kyo packed a snowball a bit too tight (it was also a sorry excuse of a ball but meh) and she let it fly. Hitting an unsuspecting smaller girl in the face.
Kyo didn't expect her to topple over and start crying. She freezes like a deer in headlights and the overwhelming urge to shrink into nothing is twisting her insides. She'd messed up. "I-I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to!"
Fat tears were rolling down the girl's face and her friend glared at her. "Liar! You hit her hard!"
I just want to pl-
The girl she'd hit is wiping her nose with her bare hands. "Leave us alone! Y-you're too old to play with snowballs anyway!" Nevermind the fact that they'd invited her to play. Looking back, Kyo thinks she should have just refused.
But she really hadn't meant to hurt the little girl-
Then she's barreling down the sidewalk and doesn't stop until she's back in the safety of her house. There she lets the tears finally slip down her face and she can't help but make the distinction that there was nobody to comfort her here.
When she's in her room, her face scrunched up before tears were falling down her cheeks. She felt so stupid and humiliated. All the kids were staring at her in judgment and it only made the difference between them so glaringly obvious.
She was so stupid for thinking that-maybe she could-she doesn't even know how to play snowball fights properly and everyone here made it look so easy so why wasn't she-
God, she felt awful.
Dinner that night at the Kusanagi home, despite both her parents being home, is a stuffy affair because she absolutely refused to talk about anything related to her day in depressed silence.
She was never going to do that again.
Kyo tried her best to find any excuse to remain inside the house but her mom insisted they were behind on decorating and needed supplies from the store because they hadn't brought everything from their old home.
And she saw her mom's point. Their house was the only one on their street without any Christmas lights on.
Thankfully because they were going further into town and getting more than a handful of groceries, her mom decided to drive. It doesn't take them long to arrive and by then Kyo is not so tense. Her shoulders unwind more as time goes by and nobody is pointing at her and exclaiming her embarrassing accident in her face.
"Kyo, can you go to Buck's hardware across the street and get some nails and a hammer?"
She's nodding and taking the money with a smile. Walking out of the store, the temperature is a stark difference from inside. The winds are bordering on almost harsh this early morning. She's glad her mom took her shopping because her clothes from Texas wouldn't have protected her from this cold.
It doesn't take her long to purchase the requirements from the hardware store. She was guessing that they're for nailing the lights outside around the house. But wouldn't that leave holes or something?
A strong gust of wind suddenly blew by causing her eyes to open once again and she really should have worn that ugly pink beanie Dad brought. Too busy wiping stubborn tears from her eyes Kyo gasped as she slipped in a patch of frosty asphalt. Blindly grasping for anything she could get her mitted palms on, she gripped the blue hoodie in front of her but the poor innocent definitely wasn't expecting to be used as a crotch, much less even grabbed.
They both went down and-
Jack blinked stupidly as he felt a warm solid weight proceed to attempt to knock what little breath he had in his lungs out forcefully. It's ironic that he's frozen as a red-faced teenage girl above him is spewing out apologies and his head is gripped gently and lifted in warm hands. Suddenly she's telling him that her parents are doctors and he could have hit his head which can lead to brain damage or even a concussion and he should most definitely not press charges cuz it was an honest to god mistake sir-
"You can see me?" You can touch me and I can feel you.
Kyo looks mortified thinking she has given the older teenager a concussion of some sort. She should have paid more attention to her parent's lecture on what to do if presented with a head injury. "Sir, I am so sorry," She's about to continue and call her mom, not wanting to leave the stranger alone.
The hand she raises is gripped in the teen's surprisingly cold hand (is there a medical condition that makes someone cold like this?).
"You have to believe in me to see me." She's trying really hard to ignore the nonsense. "You know who Jack Frost is?"
Before she can answer, Kyo is hauled to her feet and is being inspected by her worried mother. This is a lady behind her mom telling her that she had fallen and had been talking to thin air for the last minute.
Kyo's just as confused as her mom is now but nowhere near as worried. When she turned back to the spot where the boy was, he was gone.
The plump lady placed a comforting hand on her mom's shoulder. "Stephanie, the poor dear fell pretty hard."
Later that night, Kyo is wide awake. It's freezing because the central heater hasn't been fixed yet in the house (the repairman is supposed to be here before the temperature drops below zero next week) so she's underneath layers upon layers.
She's deep in thought, turning over her interaction with the teen and still coming up blank on how she could have fabricated the entire thing. She doesn't believe she hit her head in the fall. Heck, she'd grabbed onto someone before hitting the ground. So where did he disappear to and so fast that her mom didn't notice him?
All of her dots weren't connecting and she did not like it. Kyo is positive that she did not imagine the boy!
Sitting up in the bed Kyo looks like a blanket monster- she blinks at the tap tap tap on her window. Eyes wide she's out of the bed and opening her window to the floating teen in a hoodie covered by the cloak. The same one she'd seen the spirit wearing when he'd frozen the lamp post.
Jack had gone over a million questions to ask her but those all got pushed back when she grabbed him and pulled him into her room; closing the window as an afterthought following the cold winds that invaded her room.
"Old Man Frost!"
"Hey-I am not old! The name's Jack Frost to you."
She's quick to absorb that information. "And you are the winter spirit that controls the cold and snow, wind?"
He hummed. "Eh, more or less. Not so much the last one but definitely the third." He's grinning perched on her desk.
Kyo doesn't feel as nervous as she would around a normal boy or embarrassed by her frilly bonnet or nightclothes because this is a spirit. "You're real?"
Something flickered in his eyes before a speck of snow fell on Kyo's nose. He shrugged with a crooked grin. "Well, you're not imagining me."
Jack watches her let specks of snowfall into her cups palms before she is looking up and around her room where snow is falling at a leisurely pace. When a look of apprehension crosses her face, he can't help but worry that she's going to tell him to leave or maybe this was a dream and Sandman really is cruel after all-
"Is it going to melt and wet up my covers?" Her brown eyes switching between watching the snow in barely suppressed amazement and him. "Because it's cold and the dryer is slow."
A surprised laugh slips past Jack's mouth because out of all the things she could have said or asked, she's worried about some covers getting wet.
Happy Holidays and praying you are enjoying this story on this wonderful Christmas Eve.
How offended do you think Jack Frost will be concerning Kyo's inexperience with all things snow-related? Love to hear your thoughts!
Prepare for laughs and merry times as Jack attempts to teach poor Kyo the wonders of winter with snow.
Next time on Winter Revelations:
Jack is perched on her balcony edge eyeing her as if she is the confusing one and not him. "Do you at least know how to make a snowball?"
Kyo bristled in defense. Scooping up some crunchy snow, Kyo smashed it tightly into a ball before presenting it to the spirit.
…
"Is that what you call a snowball?" He managed to look incredulous and highly unimpressed in one expression. "How did you make sharp corners?! It's snow!"