Hnghhhhhhhh writer's block whyyyyyyyyyyyy

Not entirely happy with this, but meh I'm over it now and it's been WAY too long since I've updated (sorry). Might do a second part? Idk up to you guys

Requested by WEast and is, I'm sure many of you will realise, a crossover (shock horror). Not sure where it fits in on the Marvel timeline but I'll leave that to your imaginations

...

Horsing Around

...

It was fair to say that, in his three hundred or so years of existence and the fourteen or so before that, Jack had seen some fairly strange things in his time. Some things he found were significantly stranger than others. The Guardians, for instance, were somewhere between 'how is this my life' and 'I think I need my eyes checked' on the scale (which ranged from 'almost normal' all the way up to 'what a time to be alive', and then sometimes even further, until it reached 'I need to rethink my entire existence'). Heck, Jack himself was up around '404 error: cannot compute'. This, however, surpassed all of this, even if purely because what in the actual hell did I just see?

He thought it was a fairly valid question, all things considered. After all, he'd just been overtaken by a horse. In the air. Several hundred kilometres above sea level. Over open ocean.

Oh, and the horse had eight legs.

Jack, having immediately stuttered to a halt, openly gaped in the direction the horse had gone. At least, he was pretty sure it was a horse. He was having trouble consolidating his idea of horses and the other factors of the situation. Like the fact that it was flying at a speed faster than any horse had any right to. Or the fact that they were currently over open ocean.

This was something he needed to confirm, Jack decided, and he promptly took off again in the direction he'd seen it go. But, as it turned out, tracking a super fast eight-legged horse that could fly was harder than he'd thought, and he would have lost it entirely if the wind hadn't taken over navigation.

It wasn't until they were somewhere over Sweden that Jack felt the wind starting to slow down, and he was quick to spot his target in a snow-covered meadow below, its large form a striking contrast to all the white. Jack allowed himself to drop down closer, perching in the frosted limbs of a dead tree to get a better look.

It was definitely the largest horse he'd ever seen – even North, tall as he was, would have been dwarfed standing next to it – and its fur was a deep black colour. More importantly, though...

"That horse has too many legs," Jack whispered. Why did it have eight legs? How did it have eight legs? What was wrong with this horse?!

Apparently having heard him (it had good hearing as well, it would seem), the freaky horse lifted its great head and stared at him with large dark eyes. Jack stared back. Silence reigned for several long moments. The stare-off was broken, though, by the appearance of a man who stepped around from the horse's other side. His hair was dark and slicked back, and his clothes, green and black, were of a sort that Jack could not identify.

From where he hid, Jack could see the man mutter something to the horse, but the words were lost to him. Then, the stranger followed his horse's line of sight until he, too, was looking directly at Jack.

Wait, can he see me?! Certainly, he'd gained more believers over time, but this was an adult! ...Or was he? He was hanging around with a clearly abnormal horse. Maybe he was a spirit?

"Midgardian spirit, reveal yourself!" the man called, his voice easily carrying over to Jack on the wind.

"Reveal myself?" Jack muttered. That made it sound like the guy couldn't see him, and yet he was still staring directly at him. Figuring he'd been spotted anyway (by the freak horse at the very least), Jack drifted down on a stiff breeze, landing lightly in the snow a short distance away from the two – close enough that their voices could easily carry but not so close that Jack would be in danger of being grabbed. The man's eyes followed his movement.

"Um, hello?" Jack waved awkwardly. The horse's ear flicked and it snorted but the man made no indication that he'd heard. Jack waved a hand in front of the guy's face but it quickly became apparent that, no, he was still invisible. Jack turned his attention to focus solely on the horse, but he kept the man in his peripheral vision, just in case. "So, you're definitely the strangest horse I've ever seen," he said conversationally.

The horse lifted its head almost proudly but Jack didn't like the mildly affronted look in its eyes.

"I meant that in a good way!" Jack hastily added. "You're a very... impressive horse. Very... fast." Oh, Moon, what was he doing? He was talking to a horse. An eight-legged horse. Maybe he was drunk again. Good lord he hoped not.

But it would explain a few things.

"Soooo," Jack shifted awkwardly. Then, nodding at the man, "Who's your friend?"

The man in question was still staring at him (or maybe just where he thought he was?), a slight furrow to his brow. The horse nudged the man in the chest with its muzzle.

"Identify yourself, spirit," the man demanded.

Jack blinked at him. "If you can't even see me I don't think you can hear me. I'm Jack Frost," he introduced anyway.

Absolutely no reaction whatsoever. Wonderful.

"I said identify yourself!" the man repeated, his tone harsher. The horse kicked the ground with one of its (many) hooves in agitation.

"I just did! It's not my fault you don't believe!" Jack turned to the freak horse. "Help me out here!"

The horse did not help. For all its apparent intelligence and magical properties, it was about as helpful as a regular horse when it came to communication; which is to say not at all. The anthropomorphic rabbit can talk, so why can't the flying eight-legged horse? Just his luck. One of these days he was going to track down Lady Luck and tell her exactly what he thought of her prejudice.

An idea popped into his head and, not knowing what else to do, Jack seized it. Using the butt of his staff, he began writing in the snow between them, 'I am Jack Frost'.

This, thankfully, the man could see. He mouthed the name silently, before his attention returned to where Jack stood. Except this time Jack knew he had become visible.

"I had anticipated Jokul Frosti to be more intimidating," he confessed.

Jack scowled, "Okay, one," he said, holding up a finger, "I'm not Jokul Frosti. I'm Jack Frost. And two: I can be plenty intimidating when I want to be."

"I see no difference."

"Jokul Frosti is a frost giant, isn't he? I'm not. I'm – um, was – human. So now you know who I am, who are you?"

The man appeared dissatisfied but beyond the raising of his brows said nothing more on the topic. "I am Loki of Asgard," he replied, as if he'd expected Jack to have already known this.

"Okay, and who's the horse?" He wanted to add on 'and why does he have eight-legs?' but thought it impolite.

"Sleipnir."

Jack nodded. Right. Loki and Sleipnir. Those names sounded... oddly familiar. So did Asgard, come to think of it. And then he remembered.

"Wait, Norse god of trickery? That Loki?" Which would make Sleipnir... Oh. Wow, okay. A horse and his mother out on a stroll over open ocean, travelling faster than the speed of sound. How touching. "What are you doing here?"

"I fail to see how that is any business of yours," Loki replied, though he did look pleased to have been recognised.

"It's not," Jack placated. "It's just we don't see many old gods around these days." Ceres was an exception because of her role as the autumn spirit, but on the whole the gods didn't really hang out on the mortal plane anymore.

"Are you not a god yourself?"

Jack outright laughed. "Me? A god?" The idea was ludicrous, if not purely because the idea of people worshipping him was so far beyond plausible it was funny. "99% of the world's population think I'm just an expression."

Loki frowned. "On Asgard, Jokul Frosti is considered the god of glaciers."

"Not Jokul Frosti," Jack reminded him.

"You have ice magic, do you not?"

"Well, yeah..."

"And you have a connection to the wind?"

"Yeah...?"

"Then, though you may not be as we envisaged, you are Jokul Frosti. Is the name 'Jack Frost' not close enough to allude to this?"

Still, it didn't sound right to him. Jokul Frosti was a Jötun. Jack was decidedly not. "I think it's more likely that my name was derived from Jokul Frosti than me actually being him," he confessed.

"Then that only makes the connection all the more likely," Loki countered. "You are a more modern form of the same being."

Jack didn't really know how to respond to that. He was considered a god by actual gods? That was... a little overwhelming. He couldn't wait to tell Ceres.

"Fine then," he said, deciding just to play along for now, regardless of his misgivings. "From one god to another, what are you doing here?"

Loki raised a hand to absently stroke Sleipnir's neck. The horse returned the display of affection by butting his nose into Loki's shoulder. He was silent for so long, Jack began to wonder if he'd ever respond, but, then, to the winter spirit's surprise, "Delaying the inevitable."

"That sounds kinda ominous." The pensive expression that crossed Loki's face only served to strengthen Jack's belief that whatever Loki was avoiding was far from enjoyable. Right then. As the Guardian of Fun, it was his duty to fix this, regardless that Loki was definitely not a child. "So hey," he said, drawing the god's attention. "You're the god of trickery, right?" he began, a sly smirk lifting the corners of his mouth.

"I am," Loki acknowledged, a matching smile spreading across his face as he no doubt realised where this was going. Beside him, Sleipnir gave a low whiney, as if he also knew exactly what was happening and disapproved.

"Well, I like to think of myself as something of a prankster, too, so I was wondering..."

"If you are suggesting what I believe you are," Loki cut him off, in a decidedly better mood than he had been a minute ago, "I have only one condition."

Jack nodded for him to continue, unable to stop the grin from splitting his face.

"I get to choose the target."

How could he say no to that?

Guest Review Responses:

Dingbat: Your reviews today motivated me to finish this chapter XD (Ch.102:) I know that feel ;A; Half the time it feels like the holidays are busier than the rest of the time... You'll be pleased to hear, then, that there are a couple of Jack-North bonding requests coming up on the list! They're going to be a nightmare to write, I can tell, but should be worth it :P Thank you! I don't even know it just kinda happens XD (Ch.103:) I love writing the Jack-Pitch dynamic, even if Pitch is super hard to write. So there'll definitely be more of him in future, though I can't say when. He is definitely in self-denial XD (Ch.104:) Hahah that was an idea that I'd had for a little while and honestly I couldn't resist ^^; Don't apologise for long reviews; honestly they're the best :D (Ch.105:) Thank you! They went pretty well, I felt. I passed everything. Things have certainly calmed down, but the sheer amount of reading I have to do this semester is going to be hell but oh well. I'm sorry to hear that! Maths is awful. Maths on the holidays is torture D: I'm doing a history degree so I don't really have an English mark, so I guess that means yours was better haha! Sad, yes, but it was time. There's only so many chapters you can do on him and it was time to say goodbye. He's in spirit heaven (hell?) now. (Ch.106:) Shoot no don't sick Tooth on me hahaha Thank you! I don't find them all that difficult, really; not compared to some of the others, anyway. Yay thank you! It's great to know that this ridiculously long monster of a fic has been enjoyable for you guys and beneficial for me as a writer :3 (I've never had a cherry cupcake, but that's fiiiine ;))

Dreamer654: Thank you! Don't worry, I have a feeling this fic isn't going to end for a while yet; there are far too many requests to get through first XD Requests are still closed for the moment while I get rid of what's already on the list, but there are one or two on it already that match what you've asked for, so no worries there :)

guest: (Ch.85:) Naaaaw thank you! I'm glad you've been enjoying it so much! (Ch.87:) Really? That's interesting. I was wondering about the crane fly thing cause I have this book that says crane flies are called daddy long-legs and was really confused ^^; Yeah the harvestmen sounds like what I was thinking of :P

SilverSkies1524: Don't worry about it XD (As long as you remind me, we'll be right haha) I freaking love that movie XD Laughed so hard watching it I thought I was gonna die haha That sounds like a really interesting idea. If I can work it into a request that's already on the list I'll try to, but if not, remind me when I reopen them :3

Painapple: Sorreh. Ikr so rude. How dare RL be an actual thing