I'm not dead! Yay!

After much, so so so much freaking horrible awful trouble with doc manager, I finally got this up. Sorry, not the last Unexpected Allies one.

And I lied. It's pretty much just Jack meets Piper. Hope you like it, hope Jack's (mainly?) in character. Rise of the Guardians is one of my favorite movies, so it's about time I write on it.

Also, I can never thank you guys enough for the lovely reviews! We're at 61! Hooray! A party should be thrown. ^^

Anywho, read on!

Charmed Season - After fourth season

Character - Piper

Rise of the Guardians - After the movie

Character - Jack

Spirits weren't exactly out of Piper's depth. She'd had a crush on a ghost once, been possessed, been haunted, haunted other people...

She had regular conversations with her dead grandmother. So, yeah – she didn't scream when one told her, 'Boo'. Still, finding a spirit with snow-white hair and arctic eyes and the ability to control ice roaming her neighborhood was a bit much.

It was a cold, rainy Saturday in December, and while snow hadn't actually fallen in San Francisco for decades, it could (and did) get chilly and icy.
Piper had glanced out the kitchen window up at the dark clouds, and was faintly hoping for some impossible snow when she saw him – racing across rooftops with a stick in one hand. His white head was thrown back, as though he was laughing, and he was jumping carelessly, perfectly from house to house.

Seeing him head past her house from the homes across the street, she rushed to yank on a coat and scurry out, since she knew that this couldn't be anything normal.

"Seriously? I can't have a Saturday off from this stuff?" She muttered to herself, shutting the door behind her. After a fearful glance around the neighborhood (all quiet), she raised her hands and flicked them in his direction. He didn't freeze, (ironically).

The pale boy with the blue sweater twirled his stick (staff, or whatever) and actually froze the rain on the tip on the roof. He proceeded to slide gracefully along it and giggled like a child.

World still frozen – she could only assume, since it didn't work on him – Piper stepped forwards to shout,

"Hey! Kid!"

Now, she wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to do about him, or what she wanted to say, or even if she could take him in a fight if it came to it.

Piper Halliwell just saw something magical – and when that happened, she had learned it was not a coincidence.

Besides, with childish glee written on his features, he didn't seem dangerous. Except for the freezing stuff part. And being in her neighborhood, which was definitely dangerous for him.

"Hey!" She yelled again when he didn't stop. "You with the white hair!"

Suddenly he did stop, and nearly stumbled on his own ice from the abruptness. He stood there for a minute and stared, blue eyes wide – and she glared back with her narrowed hazel orbs.

"Yeah, you." She snapped. It was a good thing her voice could carry, she thought.

Slowly, strangely, as though this had never happened to him before, the white-haired sprite (Maybe demon? Some sort of fairy creature?) floated down across the street to land a few feet in front of her.

She noticed that where his bare feet touched her grass, the ground iced over. Huh.

"What are you doing here?" Whelp, no need to be subtle. Blunted-ness was her forte.

"I...I was just...I – you can see me?" He whispered.

Impossibly pale hands were whiter still on his staff, both of them curled protectively over it. Eyes an intense shade of Dodger blue seemed frightened, excited maybe as they pierced her soul.

Piper considered this magical creature crouched on her front lawn and sighed mentally, knowing right then that her day was just...gone. These kinds of magical things tended to take over her any and all of her 'normal' days.

"Of course I can see you. Skating on rooftops isn't exactly sneaky." She replied wearily.

"Yeah, but...you're an adult!"

"Only sometimes." At his confused look, she rolled her eyes. "I'm a witch, if that's what you mean."

She wondered if he was supposed to be like trolls and fairies – that only children or children-at-heart could view them. Then she wondered if maybe he was just supposed to be invisible.

"Witch?" He questioned. "But they can't see me either..."

"Why wouldn't I see you? You're icing rooftops." She countered.

The boy rocked back on his bare heels, apparently caught up in the whole but-how-can-she-see-me thing. It began to bore Piper.

"Look..." At her pointed stare, he reluctantly said,

"Jack.."

"Look, Jack. I don't care if you're a sprite or a fairy or whatever, but I try to keep my life as normal as possible. So...try not to let any of my neighbors see you, alright?"

"Actually, I'm a spirit."

"I think 'whatever' covered spirit." She pointed out. A particular throbbing – the headache dubbed 'magical problems' – started up behind her eyes.

"I'm not a sprite." The spirit insisted.

"Okay, okay. Fine."

"I'm not a type of soda."

"Sure, Jack."

"But you really can see me?"

She smiled at him – part sincere, since his awe melted her grumpy heart a tad, and part sarcastic, because they'd been over this a thousand times. Or so it felt like.

"I'm going back inside my house now. The manor, that I share with my other witchy sisters." She said pointedly. "Try anything...nasty, like hurting people with your icy powers, and the Power of Three will kick your butt."

Warning properly issued, wiccan duties done for the day (hopefully), she turned around and lumbered up her drive-way, slightly surprised that this was going so quickly. So...nicely. When did that ever happen?

As she reached her porch, she heard him yell from behind her,
"W-wait!"

And felt like this was kinda her fault. She had tempted fate, after all. Fate tended to have a cruel sense of humor.

With an epic sigh, she flipped around again, tucking her chilled, exposed hands into her pockets.

"Yes?" She called back.

Tilting his head to the side like a curious puppy, she watched a slow, uncertain smile creep up his features - it was the kind of smile that promised that all of her left socks would be gone in the morning, or Tuesday her hair would be blue. She'd seen that expression a few too many times on teenage Phoebe's face and found it both adorable and alarming.

"My name's Jack Frost. I was just passing through, never really been to California before, and thought, 'hey, these guys could use some snow'. If you want, I could break this whole decades-without-snow-nonsense thing, or like you asked, just -"

"Hold up." She interrupted, the first part of that finally absorbing. "Did you say 'Jack Frost?' As in, The?"

The boy nodded, the mischievous smile blooming into a grin.

Okay, for a tiny, tiny second the Charmed One may have believed him, but the look of total trouble on his face destroyed any credibility he had. How could she take him seriously when even he couldn't take it seriously?

Clearly, the guy was joking with her.

Piper gave a little chuckle and rolled her eyes,

"Yeah. Right."

"You...don't believe me?" Somewhere during their conversation, the Sprite...the spirit had leaped to balance, one-legged, on his upright staff. It was an impressive balancing act.

That definitely trumped all of Piper's yoga attempts.

Nursing a jealous pang into a stab, she turned her narrowed eyes back to his face. This was ridiculous. Really, truly, utterly..

"That's ridiculous!" She snapped. "Next you'll be telling me Santa Claus is real!"

Her heart softened when she met his expression though; obviously this boy wasn't used to hiding his feelings, and it left a raw feeling in her chest to see a face so...open. Perhaps he was really who he said he was.

What are the odds? She wondered, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Yeah, maybe she had been proved wrong about magical beings in the past, and yeah, there was a lot out there that the Charmed Ones had yet to face - but that didn't mean every single myth and legend was real!

..Did it?

"Jack Frost? The snow-man guy, who brings winter and nips at peoples' noses?" She tried to clarify.

He wrinkled his own nose at the description as a blush - which on his face was this odd blue color that didn't look healthy - washed over his cheeks.

"I have never 'nipped' at anyone's nose! Never! I don't know where that came from." He protested.

A laugh bubbled up in her chest, and Piper eventually just smiled and gave a little shrug at the universe.

Honestly, she didn't want to deal with the implications of that this early in the day (it wasn't even past twelve) – but it wasn't unfathomable. Okay. Jack Frost - or something like him - was real. Adjusting her world...

Alrighty then.

"Maybe you're Jack Frost, maybe you're Tinker-Bell." She said finally. "I just know that you are real. "

A small laugh, little more than a giggle, was her reward.

Jack Frost spun as he leapt from his staff and landed next to her, an impossible feat for anyone tied down by the laws of physics, but apparently not for him.

He clapped his hands together, the sound somewhat muted due to the stick.

"Awesome! I mean, it's weird that, before, you saw me but you didn't really believe in me but..." He shook his head. "Anyway...So whatta ya say, um..."

"Piper." She informed him, a wry, crooked smile on her face.

He grinned back.

"Would you like to see a white Christmas?"

"It's two weeks till Christmas."

"Fine, a snowy two-weeks-till Christmas, then."

After a moment of deep thought, punctuated by each tap on her chin, Piper Halliwell laughed and opened her mouth.

A/N: So... I suck at endings. I admit it. But I fully intend to write a second part - and actually have that one mostly written. Shocker, I know.

As for anyone (cough no one cough) wondering about the next Smallville one...I'm not sure. Part of the last bit is written, but the critic is me is like "I HATE EVERYTHING!" and as such, I've lost my inspiration.

But hey, if you review, who knows what might happen? *wink wink*

Anyhow, thanks a billion for reading! See you next time.

Kokoro