Where Do We Go From Here||Accidents Happen

Chapter Summary: It's not her fault.

Chapter Rating: K


Disclaimer: I do not own Rotg.


"Elsa, I'm here! Sorry I'm late, I- what's wrong?" Jack flings his staff aside and drops to a kneel in front of little Elsa, wiping frozen tears from under her eyes. "Elsa, princess, you can tell me anything." He has gotten better with children since befriending the little girls. Speaking of which, Anna isn't in this room, it's a different room altogether and there's only one bed in it.

Elsa sobs heart-wrenchingly, covering her face with her hands. "G-go away!"

The words hit him like a physical blow, but instead he sits and gently pulls her into his lap, wrapping his arms and cloak around her like a shield from the world. "Elsa, you don't mean that-" he tries again, hiding the pain at being pushed away.

"I- I do!" She tries convincing them both, but when he shimmers and feels less solid around her, she gasps in horror and looks up at him. "I do," she says more firmly, but this time Jack still feels as strong and cuddly as always. "I'm a monster. I hurt people. I don't want to hurt you too." Tears are still streaming down her face and her voice cracks but her resolve does not waver.

Jack is mad now. "Elsa, who told you that? You are not a monster, you are a beautiful little girl with a special gift. You know what they say, right? Cold hands, warm heart. I have cold hands too. We both have warm hearts." He takes both of her small hands and holds them in his slender ones.

"B-but I hurt Anna!"

Well, whatever he had been expecting, it wasn't that. "I'm sure you didn't-"

"But I did! We had to go to the trolls to save her and we moved my stuff here and I can't ever open that door or talk to anyone anymore because I'm out of control and I need to stay away from people or I'll hurt them like I hurt Anna!" She dissolves into incoherent sobs again, gripping his shirt tightly and further freezing it in her anguish.

"Elsa, whoever told you that is lying. You would never hurt someone on purpose, and you can't hurt me." He rubs her back in soothing circles, and once she is relatively calm, he sets her on her feet and stands. "Hit me."

"W-what?"

"Hit me with your powers as hard as you can."

"N-no!" Elsa shakes her head furiously but Jack cups her face in his hands and makes her look at him.

"Do it, Elsa. I need you to know you can't hurt me, an the only way to do that is for you to hit me."

"But what if I-"

Jack stops her with a finger over her lips. "I'll be fine Elsa. If you believe that I'll be fine, I'll be fine."

Elsa bites her lip, hard, but nods. "Okay. If you promise it won't hurt."

"I promise." Jack looks her right in the eye.

Still biting her lip, Elsa tentatively unchains the beast that is her power. It flies out of her fingertips in the deceptively innocent-looking form of blue light and slams into Jack's chest so hard it sends him flying backwards into the wall, where he crashes into the vanity mirror and shatters it before practically bouncing off and landing on the carpet. "Jack!" She runs to him and shakes his shoulders, hoping he isn't unconscious like Anna was. She is the only one who can see him, and she doesn't know how to reverse what she's done.

Jack pushes himself up from his ungraceful landing, a hand on his head. He mutters, "Ow," very quietly so Elsa doesn't hear him. Fixing an overly bright smile on his face, he hugs her tightly without showing her his wincing face. Hopefully she can't see what hurt him. "See Elsa? I'm perfectly fine!"

Elsa pulls back and looks at him with concern, pushing his hair back from his forehead. "Are you sure, Jack? You don't have a fever? You feel so warm-"

Jack laughs. "I'm okay, I promise. This is great though, I had no idea you had this much power stored inside of you!"

"How is this great?" Elsa demands, pulling him to his feet. He lifts her onto her bed before she can step in the mirror shards. "I threw you into the wall!"

"No, it means your powers isn't an endless reservoir of Winter," like mine is. "If you can get rid of enough, you won't spew ice randomly and you can master it. Just by all the exertion you did today, you should be good for a little while." He doesn't mention that he had absorbed the power she had shot him with (it was like being injected with pure caffeine), and while it had hurt, it gives him precise details about what her magick is like. It also shows him that his very presence near her and interaction with the little girl is strengthening her powers far beyond her control. "Like, shoot me again. I can take it and deposit it on the mountaintop."

Elsa gets upset again thinking of blasting him again and he sits on her bed with her. "But I already hurt Anna, what if I hurt my parents while they're in here? I am a monster!"

"Stop saying that Elsa!" His tone makes her look at him, and it confuses him. He sounds inured and hurt. "You are not a monster, you are my Elsa." He pulls her close and takes out her braid, finger-combing her hair. "Let me just get this straight. Did you try to hit Anna?"

Elsa's eyes open wide in distress and she gasps, almost yanking her head away from him. "No! I love Anna, I would never try to hurt her!"

"Did you ever intentionally hurt someone using your powers?"

"No."

"Have you ever gone on rampages through town roaring and screaming?"

Elsa giggles, the reaction he was looking for. "No."

"Then you are not a monster. Accidents happen, Elsa. It wasn't your fault. The situation got out of control and bad things happened. You did the best you could and you are a great sister. Anna loves you as much as you love her, she knows you would never hurt her on purpose."

Elsa quiets, the cool fingers brushing her scalp soothing her. Once her hair is in soft, gentle waves down her back, she leans back against his chest and snuggles up to him. "I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right." Jack's voice is gentle and calm. "Accidents happen, Elsa. How many do you think I've had? Let me tell you, it's more than you can count. It's not your fault." Leaning onto his side, he tucks her under the covers. "Go to sleep Elsa. You've had a long day. I'll be here when you wake up."

"Promise?" she murmurs right before she falls asleep.

"Promise," Jack swears, getting up and cleaning up the glass from the mirror as well as picking a few splinters out of his neck and head. Once the cleaning is done, he sits in a chair in the corner with his staff propped up beside him, falling asleep as well.

It does them both good. As Jack had said, it had been a long day.


A/N:
Sorry for the gap between updates but I don't want to publish more than once a day.
Today is another snow day (I swear, Jack won't leave my town alone!) and that's why I'm updating at this time.
I'll try to update twice a week, I have so many arcs and stuff ready, but I really want requests! Requests or prompts or headcanons or stuff you want to see, I swear I'll do whatever you want (except yaoi, I suck at it, sorry). I especially love writing scenes that could be interpreted as romantically meant but in actuality aren't, like between Jack and MN and Jack and June (they're a family, so no, but immortals act differently than mortals do).
Anyway, R&R! Check out iamanawesometaco on Wattpad and critique my work!
Um, feel free to critique this too, and flames are totally welcomed, I'll use them to bake cupcakes for you lovely people! (Internet cupcakes, really, but the intended sentiment is the same, and any flames I get can't possible be worse than the bottom of my laptop, so it's all good.)
This is Cat Lunanoff, signing off! *mock salute*