Jack managed to catch himself upright using his powers, but he couldn't control his powers properly since he didn't have his staff, which meant that he wasn't able to hold himself in the air for long. He quickly grabbed on to the ladder and started climbing up.
This passage sure is small...
He reached the top and groaned when he found the door closed. He tried pushing it but quickly retreated his hands when he started losing balance on the ladder.
Why is this door so damn heavy and WHY IS THERE SO LITTLE SPACE IN HERE?
Groaning to himself, Jack started climbing down and quickly reached the bottom. He walked forward carefully, looking around the small passage, just before he slipped and fell. He groaned to himself as he stood up, trying to look for a way out, with no success.
What the hell am I gonna do now?
Jack just stood there, trying to think of a solution until he heard some sort of sound coming from ahead. Forgetting about his current situation, he walked on and found Elsa doing something, crystal-clear pipes visible on the high ceiling.
"Wow, that ice sure looks gorgeous," Jack called out.
Elsa snapped her attention towards his voice before her annoyed expression returned again.
"What are you doing down here, Frost?" She asked, turning back to her work.
"Woah, is it wrong for me to help someone out?" He joked and he walked closer.
"You helping someone out? Hard to believe." Elsa rolled her eyes.
"Geez, I'm not that bad! I'm just selective about the people I wanna help." Jack shrugged.
"Wow, I must be honoured that I'm added in that list." Elsa mocked him.
"Look, the only reason I'm here is that Flynn Freakin Rider managed to trip over his own feet and pushed me down the hole. Not because I wanna help you or anything" Jack muttered, staring at the pipes.
"Oh really? Is that so? 'Cause I remember you asking me whether it was wrong for you to help me," Elsa commented.
"I was joking."
"Yeah, right."
"Whatever, the door is closed which means you're stuck with me right now. Isn't there another way to go up there? I'm not able to open it from the top of the ladder." Jack informed.
"The most famous person in the world is unable to open a door. Quite some news, isn't it?" Elsa smirked.
"I'm a racer, not a wrestler or damned bodybuilder." Jack rolled his eyes.
"Well, if that's the case then how about you help me?"
Jack snapped his eyes back at her to check whether she was being serious. And when he saw that she wasn't joking, he quickly held up his hands in the universal sign of surrender.
"This job needs ice powers. I'm not really good at it, even with my staff in my hands. I prefer using my wind magic more." He shrugged. Elsa turned away, staring at the pipes as she spoke.
"You should be lucky that you've got two powers. It's not common to see people possessing two magical powers," Elsa whispered, though her voice was heard loud and clear in the small space.
"Well, it is a blessing sometimes but according to me, my ice powers are completely useless. I would've preferred something more powerful like fire or darkness or even-"
"Any magical power can be powerful if you use it in the right way." And with that, Elsa stayed silent and continued to work on the pipes.
"Well you sure do take this seriously," he mumbled to himself as he kicked a stone. "So, how can I help?" He asked, walking towards her.
"Are you sure you wanna do this?" Elsa raised an eyebrow.
"I've got nothing else to do. I don't think the others will be coming to our rescue anytime soon" Jack shrugged.
"Fine then. Just hold the broken pipes while I join them using my ice," Elsa explained, signalling him to stand next to her.
"Sounds pretty simple. Like this, right?" He held two of the broken sides of the pipe, looking over at her for confirmation. Whereas Elsa just stared at him with wide eyes before she started cracking up. "What's so funny?" Jack raised an eyebrow.
"You do realise that you're holding two different pipes and not two broken sides of the same pipe, right? One of them is as thick as a pumpkin while the other is thinner than my pinkie" She continued chuckling.
Jack blinked before he stared at the pipes. Indeed, now that he actually saw it, both of them were completely different ones. Though embarrassed and pissed, he looked up and glanced at her laughing face.
Fine, I admit, she is pretty cute...
"What the hell are you staring at?" Elsa asked teasingly as she nudged him.
"I don't think I've seen such a more beautiful smile than yours," He flirted. "You should smile more often."
At that moment he realised that ass much as he hated flirting and did it just because his trainers told him to, that compliment was something that he actually meant.
Jack expected some sassy reply but was instead met with a drop in her expression when she realised what he meant. Her face which was full of mirth just seconds ago was completely emotionless by now.
"Get back to work," she mumbled and grabbed the actual other end of one of the pipes, which she handed over to Jack. She groaned loudly when she saw the way he was holding it. "Don't you know how to hold ice?! Its gonna break if you grip it like that!" She exclaimed before she pulled one of the pipes from his hands. She grabbed his hand, startling Jack, and turned it over so that his palm was facing upwards and gently placed the pipe in his hand.
And while she was concentrating on the pipe, Jack's eyes were wide as he stared at her. When exactly was the last time he held hands with someone?
Her hands sure are cold...
"Do the same with your other hand," she ordered.
"H-huh?" Jack blinked.
Get yourself together!
"The pipe, dummy!" Elsa scolded.
"Right!" Jack mumbled as he placed his hand below the pipe and not on it.
Elsa stood in front of him so that she could freeze the pipe together again. Jack glanced at her face one more time, seeing the emotionless look again.
So what could I possibly do to get her in a good mood? It was my fault for getting her sad after all...
Woah, wait the frick up, from when the heck did I start caring about her feelings?!
Jack bit his lip, glancing at her once again.
I don't like seeing her so dull... So who cares? Now let's see, how to make her smile...
Jack hid his grin when he remembered what happened that afternoon. He tried peeking into her scarf and smirked when he caught sight of the black mark.
"So... A snowflake, huh?" He asked as casually as possible.
The reaction was instant.
Elsa's face turned pink, her left hand rising up to cover it up as she stared at him with wide eyes. Her blush intensified when he smirked and leaned closer to her face.
"That is pretty hot for a Snow Queen like yourself," he whispered huskily.
Elsa just looked away and placed her index finger on the tip of his nose before pushing him away. Jack stepped back, rubbing his nose before he smirked at her again.
"Tell anyone else about it and I'll make sure that no one knows even the place where I bury you," Elsa threatened while glaring at him, but the blush on her face just made her look like an adorable toddler who got angry that someone stole their toy.
"Aw, aren't you adorable?" Jack teased pinching her cheek.
"No, I'm not!" Elsa exclaimed as she slapped his hand away and Jack noticed that she was getting redder by the minute. He grabbed her wrist, turned her back towards him and pinned her against his chest.
"Sure, whatever you say, Snowflake" Jack whispered in her ear and smirk in satisfaction when he saw her eyes widen, face turning red to the maximum.
Damn, I wanna flirt with her as long as I'm here if that's the reaction I'm gonna get...
Elsa quickly got out of his grasp and walked away. Smiling to himself, Jack followed close behind before he realised just how many pipes were broken.
"Wow. Trust Flynn to make a huge mess out of simple things," he sassed.
"As much as I want to support him and argue with you, you're right. I have to fix about 12 pipes before I can go home," Elsa informed.
"So I just have to find the broken pieces of the pipe, and you fix them?" Jack asked.
"Yup. I mean, if you're up to the task," Elsa added slyly, the blushing woman from merely a few seconds ago replaced by the confident young woman who loved to challenge him. Jack smirked, his competitive spirit rising.
"I'm gonna pair up all these pipes before you can even open those pretty little lips of yours" he smirked.
"What the heck?" Elsa asked, blinking in disbelief at the sudden compliment of her lips.
"Its called flirting, Snowflake." Jack rolled his eyes, grabbing some random pipe.
"You better not. Unless you want your staff back?" Elsa asked.
"What-" Jack stopped himself when he saw the steel black staff in her white hands. He walked to her, taking it from her hands.
"Where did you even find it in this dark place?" He asked, feeling familiarity wash over him as he held his staff.
"Oh, it was just lying around. I had given it to Flynn and had told him to hide it and it seems like he thought this was a good hiding place." Elsa shrugged.
"Well, this makes work easier for me," Jack commented. He swished his staff and frost flew out and stuck on all the pipes. He tried lifting them but the pipes didn't even budge. "What the-"
"It seems like your magic doesn't work on mine. Just like how you couldn't control my ice last night when you tried escaping," Elsa stated.
"Yeah, don't have to remind me twice," Jack muttered, disintegrating the frost.
"Let's get to work now," Elsa said, walking forward and lifting all the pipes using her powers, pairing up the ones with the same width.
Jack just watched and soon enough, all the broken pieces floated before them in the form of beautiful crystal-coloured light blue pipes.
"Good job," Jack commented.
"And this is the tough part" Elsa groaned.
"Why? What's wrong?" Jack asked.
"The ceiling is way too high, so its kinda difficult seeing where I'm setting the pipes. That results in thin ones getting joint with thick ones and the pipes ending up crooked or not even big enough to fit in the space," She groaned.
"Why can't you just make some kind of staircases or something to reach up there?" Jack asked.
Elsa looked at the floor, going kinda silent again.
"As I said, I have my own personal reasons why I don't use my powers. Fixing these pipes- I've done it ever since I got to know that I have Ice powers. But for other things, I'm just not comfortable using my powers," Elsa explained.
Jack just stared at her silent form for a few seconds before he thought of something and fake sighed.
"Ugh, I guess this leaves us with no other choice," He fake groaned.
"What choice?" Elsa asked, now looking at him and raising an eyebrow.
"Glad you asked," Jack smirked before he swept her in his arms.
Elsa freaked out, her instincts kicking in as she quickly wrapped her hands around his neck for support. And just as she was about to move to get out of his grasp, Jack stood on his staff and jumped into the air.
"Jack Frost what the actual hell are you doing?!" Elsa screamed.
"Helping," Jack replied sarcastically before he flew over to the pipes. "There. Now you can fix them properly." He commented.
"You idiot! Let me down right now!" Elsa yelled at him.
"Sure, if that's what you want" Jack shrugged, letting go of her legs but tightening his grip around her waist so that she doesn't fall.
Feeling her legs swinging over nothing, Elsa was hanging on to him, literally hugging him around the neck with her chin planted on his shoulder.
"Aw, I didn't know you liked me so much Snowflake." Jack grinned before he wrapped both of his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder as he lifted her up a bit before leaning back so that she could stand on the staff between his legs.
"I hate you," Elsa muttered. She quickly started working with the pipes, trying to finish as soon as possible, while Jack enjoyed his time, his arms wrapped around her waist.
She does feel colder than most people...
When was the last time I ACTUALLY hugged someone when it wasn't for formality?
And without realizing it, Jack brought her a little closer, buried deep in his thoughts. Feeling him hug her tighter, Elsa turned to scold him but then she stopped, seeing a sad and regretful expression and a scowl on his face.
Now that's an expression I have almost all the time...
...but not something I've seen on his face before...
"Is something wrong?" She asked softly.
Looking up, Jack realised what he had been doing and loosed his grip, looking away from her bright blue eyes.
"Nothing," he muttered, looking down.
Elsa just looked at him with a 'do-not-lie-to-me' look on her face. Jack glanced up and saw her expression before he groaned loudly and shook his head again.
"It's just something I don't wanna talk about," he muttered, almost to himself.
"Okay, if that's what you want," Elsa shrugged, "At least I'm not invading others' privacy like how you are invading mine by suddenly pulling me against you," she rolled her eyes.
Smiling for no reason, Jack pulled back a bit and covered up his smile with a smirk. "But you seem like you're enjoying it a lot."
"Don't get your hopes too high, Frost. Just take me to the other side of this place so that I can fix these pipes and get this over with." Elsa rolled her eyes.
"Whatever you Highness wishes," Jack joked before they flew over, Elsa quickly finishing her work.
They descended to the floor and Elsa was quick enough to get out of his grasp. Jack didn't say anything until Elsa asked him to hand over the staff.
"I really can't trust you to not escape when you're still having it so hand it over," Elsa hissed.
And when he refused yet again, she just pulled it out of his hands before he could even blink, and sealed it to the ceiling with her ice. Jack tried to summon it and it moved and struggled to come to him, but the ice held it back, firmly sticking it to the ceiling.
Giving up after attempting for a few minutes, Jack followed Elsa as they walked back to the trapdoor. Elsa pressed a hidden button and a few minutes later, a huge bang was heard from above as the others opened the heavy door for them.
Elsa made Jack go up first, and the racer did so, climbing a few steps up before smirking at her as he assured her that he wouldn't have seen up her skirt if she had climbed up first. After that, he climbed up as fast as possible and once outside, he grabbed Flynn and ran towards his room, knowing better than to face a furious Elsa.
...
"Finally!" Jack gasped as he opened the huge trapdoor, trying to be as quiet as possible.
He had managed to sneak out of his room in the night with his bags, determined to leave this place even if it meant Elsa and Flynn might catch him again. He had entered the control room through the window, which he had left open before heading out for dinner, and had been pulling at the heavy door while desperately trying to not make any noise. And now, it finally opened.
Jack quietly went down the ladder and stood right below the spot where his staff was stuck.
My powers might not work on your ice, Snowflake, but it can definitely break it.
And with that thought in his head, he conjured up a sharp icicle using his powers and started breaking the ice bit by bit. The ice didn't break so easily, which made him realise just how strong her ice was.
And she wasn't even using all of her strength. Just how powerful is that girl..?
As the ice finally cracked and broke due to the staff's weight, Jack danced in joy before flying out of the tunnel, not bothering to close the trapdoor. He quickly grabbed his bag and flew through the trees as fast as possible, the dim light from his staff helping him to see through the dark. He successfully reached a road and followed it to get out of the forest.
"Yes!" He cheered when he reached the tar road, the one where the strange creatures had attacked his bus.
"You never learn, do you?"
Jack turned around when he heard the familiar voice, and groaned loudly when he saw Elsa and Flynn casually walk towards him.
"Seriously, can't I just go?! The rink is almost finished, except for levelling the ice. You can just do that by yourself!" Jack complained.
"The punishment was that you finish everything, Frost," Flynn smirked smugly, which made Jack to want to punch him in the face.
"And you won't be leaving until you do so" Elsa replied, staring at the sky in boredom. And before anyone could even blink, a rope was tied tightly to Jack's hands, preventing him from doing anything, and the other end of the rope was held by Elsa, who casually handed it over to Flynn. Jack just blinked when he saw Elsa take his staff in her own hands, and that's when he woke up from his shocked trance.
"When the-" Jack stuttered in shock, wondering how and when she took his staff while tying him up, which made Elsa turn to him and smirk evilly.
"Everyone has their own set of secrets, Frost," she said in a fake-sweet voice before they started walking back to the rink.
...
"Where were you three roaming so late in the night?" Mr Moon asked them the moment Flynn, Elsa, and Jack stepped into the rink.
"Jack tried to escape so we went to get him back" Flynn shrugged.
Manny just raised an eyebrow and looked at the rope tied around Jack's hands and at the culprit himself, before he turned his attention to Elsa.
"Stop using Flynn's powers for such silly matters. They are needed for the safety of this place and I don't want you using his powers as something for entertainment. Unlike some people, his powers are useful." He glared at her.
"I apologize," Elsa replied, her head bowed deeply.
Jack just raised his eyebrow, not understanding why the man was being so rude to her. And he felt even more confused as to why Elsa wasn't fighting back because it was unusual for him to see her being so submissive. And that's when Manny turned to Jack.
"And why exactly are you trying to escape, Mr Frost?" Manny asked.
"Because it's not fair that I have to work my ass off for something caused by accident!" Jack retorted.
"Though by accident, it still was caused by you." Manny pointed out.
"But I've already removed all the ice from the rink and Elsa has spread the water in the rink. Its gonna take days for the damn thing to freeze completely. And once it's done, you people can just use that resurfacer thing -I don't know how to use that machine anyways- and finish up with the rink! And both of us are happy!" Jack explained.
Manny just stared at him skeptically before he glanced at the other two as well -though his glance was more like a glare when he looked at Elsa- before he sighed.
"Fine then, how about a deal?" Manny asked.
"And that is?" Jack raised an eyebrow.
"You're a racer, aren't you? So you can compete in a race with one of us, who will be chosen by me. If you win, you can leave this place at once. But if we win, you stay here until the rink is completely finished. Deal?" Manny asked, holding out his hand.
This will be so easy to win. They are just some random people in the middle of a forest anyways. This man doesn't know the trap he's setting himself in!
And with that thought in his head, Jack smirked smugly before he shook hands with the old man.
California, here I come!