"What are you doing here?!" Brulant yelled as he stomped into North's office, electricity jumping through strands of his hair and lighting up his face every so often.
"So glad you could finally join us, Jack," Mother Nature said calmly turning her head just enough to regard the fuming spirit.
"Look at me when I'm talking!" Brulant stormed, almost literally, up to Mother Nature and stared her down. "What are you doing here?"
Mother Nature stood abruptly and looked down her nose to look at Jack. Brulant hesitated for a moment, then repeated his question to her again, although the spark behind his words had lessened.
"You are lucky that this has to do with you, brat," Mother Nature growled, then averted her eyes from the brunet to scan over the blue and white figure hanging behind in the doorway.
"So, this is who is causing the problems?" Mother Nature said smoothly, all trace of frustration or intimidation wiped from her voice. She pushed Brulant aside and strode up to Frost, locking eyes with him and noticing the delicate design in his startlingly frost blue irises.
"My name is Jack Frost, and I don't know why Sunburn hates you so much-"
"Hey!"
"-but I know that he must have a good reason," Jack finished as he stared into the black eyes of Mother Nature. After a minute, Mother Nature smirked, satisfied with what she saw in his eyes, and turned away from him, all attention back to North, who had stood as soon he noticed the tension in the air, and prepared himself to intervene if need be.
"I am here because of him," Mother Nature gestured towards Frost, and she sat back down in the chair she had been in previously. "Old Man Winter is upset. Winter is off balance. I came here to figure out what the problem was, and apparently I came to the right place."
"Ah, yes," North sat back down in his chair behind his desk, and began sorting through a few papers. "If what you told me before is true, then Jack's presence here is dangerous."
"Yes. He is causing a lot of trouble. The wind is confused, trying to come to the North Pole, while trying to stay in the South, where Old Man Winter resides. It is causing a sudden flux in the atmosphere and storms are beginning to rage across the United States out of season." Mother Nature spared a quick glance to Brulant, who had settled himself against the wall next to Frost, who had not left the doorway.
"You were telling me about a possible solution, Nikolas?" Mother Nature turned her attention back to North, who had pulled out the vile of liquid from earlier.
"I do not wish to keep this as only option. It is not certain how it will react. Is dangerous, until proven otherwise."
"North, we do not have time to figure out if this is dangerous or not. The Earth is in turmoil from this new spirit showing up. We cannot wait any longer North." Mother Nature warned, her tone becoming dangerous in the last few words. Frost stepped forward then, looking down at the bottle and then back up at North.
"I'll do it."
"What?" North asked, closing his hand around the bottle and blocking it from view.
"North, I will do it. I will take the stuff," Frost repeated, and held out his hand.
"Now, wait. Hold on one second! I never agreed-"
"It was never your decision to make," Frost snapped. Brulant became silent, and an unseen message passed between the two before Brulant nodded his head slowly and leaned back against the wall again.
"Whatever. I never liked you anyhow. If you die from this, it's your own fault. But," Brulant stared at Mother Nature for this part, "I'll be blaming you." Mother Nature said nothing at this and simply stared from Frost to the bottle in North's hand. North sighed, defeated, and opened up his hand again.
"I do not like this. I need to do more research into potion, a few tests. I do not have enough time," North rubbed his free hand against his forehead and rubbed gently, as if trying to stave off a forming headache.
"I am okay with this. I mean, I'm already dead, right? What could it possibly do to me?"
"Many, many bad things. You are not my Jack, but you are still Jack. I do not wish any of that upon you," North then lifted his head from his hand and looked at Mother Nature.
"How much time?"
"What do you mean-"
"How much time do I have? I want to test, to make sure is not going to be a poison. How much time until this is irreversible?" North asked. Mother Nature closed her eyes for a moment, took in a deep breath, and let it go slowly, as if taking in the sweet aroma of cookies and warm pine that was the North Pole, and opened her eyes again.
"Three days. Three days is as long as I am going to give you before I take matters into my own hands," And with that, Mother Nature stood from her chair and quietly exited the room, the Jacks having moved out of the way beforehand.
North sighed and tucked the bottle back into his pocket. "That was close," He said after a moment of tight silence.
"What the hell was that about?!" Brulant yelled, his emotions getting the better of him, "Who the hell does she think she is? Just barging in like that and telling us what to do! I outta-"
"Jack! Enough. She is only doing what is best for nature. Is her job. She must keep Earth in balance, and she is right, having Frost here is causing Earth to fall out of balance. We are playing very tricky game, now. Very tricky…" North began stroking his beard and was lost in deep thought. Brulant scoffed and stomped out of the room, Frost trailing a few feet behind, not wanting to be left alone with North.
"Hey, slow down. You need to chill," Frost tugged on Brulant's button-up shirt, and Brulant struggled for a moment, then gave up in a huff of heated air.
"Look, Frost, I don't want them to hurt you, alright? I can admit this, because I am you, and you are me, and I can still read your mind. Did you realize that too, back there? I guess we were paying too much attention to everything else, that we could not hear each other."
"Yeah," Frost breathed, standing stoic still for a few moments, then broke out into laughter, "Yeah, I guess he could. I bet he has slurped eggs back in his day. That used to be an actual thing back in the seventies, you know? I mean, the nineteen-seventies, not the… you know," Frost trailed off, but his smile never faltered. Another moment of companionable silence passed, and Frost looked back at his opposite.
"I was really gonna do it," Frost began, "I don't know how dangerous it really is me being here, but by the way Mother Nature was acting, I'd say I was the one who is the potential danger here, not that potion. And North seems to have some kind of confidence in it, and I trust North. I've known him for years, and-"
"This isn't your North. He's different. I don't know who your North is, but he seems like a great person. My North is also a great person, but he's always seen the world in a more… complicated way. He gave me this speech once about seeing the magic in everything, then went on to tell me that magic was real and was what was truly needed in the world. He never really grew out of his mentor phase, back when he studied with Ombric, that great wizard back in the day or something."
"Yeah, Ombric! North told me about him once! And I got that same speech, but instead he went on to tell me about tiny wooden babies or something. That one took me a while to figure out."
"See, they are different. Even with the way that conversation went," Brulant twined his fingers behind his head and leaned back against the dark pine wall. After a minute of silence, both of the Jacks let out a long yawn.
"Haha… I guess we are the same person, huh?" Frost teased, then felt his eyes start to get itchy. He rubbed them gently and leaned against the wall next to Brulant, then sank to the floor, Brulant doing the same after a moment or so.
"Just gonna… take a nap…" Frost murmured as consciousness left him and Brulant.