Yikes - sorry about the slight delay, you guys. I started school 8/26 and free time sort of got away from me. In fact I should be homeworking now, but I just got home from the second of three days of work receptioning sooooo I kind of need to wind down.

Thank you for the favs, follows, and reviews! :D Please enjoy!

"Are you Jack Frost?"

It echoed around his head, hammered in, and he nearly went blind with the panic (did she just that can't be but she said) crashing through him, his staggered breath puffs of mist in the icy air. Drop-jawed in his shock, quickly favoring a broad grin that he barely managed to hold steady when he realized she was still looking at him! "Y-yes!" he finally choked out, moisture welling at his eyes. He leaned heavily on his staff, overwhelmed. "Yes, I am! That's me! Jack Frost!" He sunk forward onto his knees, eyes level with hers, gripping his staff even harder to keep upright. "You can see me?"

"Of course I can," she said, frowning like she thought he was being silly. Why shouldn't she be able to see him?

All the air left him; even the Wind didn't seem to know what to do. It felt like the Wind was as baffled as he.

"You see me?" he asked again, voice pitching higher as a warm, buoyant something swelled up in his chest, and he had the feeling he might burst if he couldn't get it out. The little girl nodded, looking even more now like she thought he was just trying to act dumb.

"She sees me," Jack said on a trembling rush of air, head bowing as if in reverence. He laughed weakly to himself, tension draining out of him, and only throwing a hand in front of him prevented him from keeling face-first into the snow. "She sees me," he said again and again. The balloon swelling up inside him became too much to bear and he leaped into the Wind at last, back-flipping and crowing up into the sky with unabashed joy. And when his breath ran out he found more and cheered again; he circled above the house, high up in the sky. He might have screamed himself hoarse except he remembered the little girl down in the back yard. Coming back to himself, Jack returned to her, kneeling down, gripping his staff nervously with both hands, but he had never smiled so hugely in his life.

"Hey," he said breathlessly, voice soft now, "What's your name?"

She swayed shyly, long black hair falling over one eye. "Violet Parr," she said, looking askance at him. She did not seem to have been put off by his explosion of emotion. Jack grinned and reached out toward her, staying his hand when he noticed her twitch away.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Violet Parr," he said, voice thick in his throat. He had never spoken to anyone, really. Just himself and the silent Man in the Moon. And one-sided dialogue with the children he visited – those ones who never heard him or saw him no matter how hard he tried. But no one had ever talked back. And now that someone finally did... He had dreamed a million times about such a moment but he had never believed in it – he had no idea what to say or do.

"Are you okay, mister?" Violet Parr asked him, and Jack realized he was actually crying now. Withdrawing his hand, brushing his tears away before they became flecks of ice on his face, he nodded. He took a steadying breath and let it out in an ephemeral cloud.

"Yeah. I'm great. Do... do you know, Violet, that only very special people can see me?" It was the best he could come up with. And, in his heart, it was true.

Violet actually looked surprised at that. Like he had jarred something in her memory. "Daddy always says I'm special. I thought it was just because..." she cut herself off and glanced wide-eyed back at the house. Mom had always taught her not to talk about her powers, that they were a Big Secret. Jack Frost cocked his head at her, a slight crease in his brow.

"Because of what?" he gently prodded. He knew parents always told children they were special, that everyone was special. And he believed that, too. But Violet Parr could see him, and he believed without a doubt that did make her very special. "Violet?"

And she seemed to shut herself off, looking caught between retreating into the house and standing there but bursting into tears in her frustration. Something she was not allowed to say? Jack knew this one. "I won't tell anyone else, I promise."

For a long moment, she stared wide-eyed at him, not even blinking. And then quicker than a blink her entire head vanished.

"Whoa!" Jack cried, springing back onto the Wind in surprise. "Violet?!" he shouted at the empty space where here face had been, heart hammering. Where'd- How did- What?!

The crunch of little footsteps in the snow drew his attention back and he watched the bundle of winter clothes, holding the shape of an unseen child, make an ungainly beeline for the house. "Violet, wait, please!" he called, flying over to crouch down in front of the clothes. Violet's face reappeared before him, perhaps losing control when he startled her. "You're a Super?" he asked, marveling. He hadn't seen any sign of Super activity in over a decade, and now a little six-year-old girl had reassured him that they were still alive and well.

"Please don't tell my mom," she said, "I'm not supposed to."

"To use your powers?" Jack clarified. Violet nodded. "I already promised I wouldn't tell anyone. And I have no one to tell, Violet." He tried not to look or sound like the sadness leeching unbidden into his heart at this fact but rather like the warm happiness he'd felt when she'd locked her eyes on him. "You are the only person who can see and hear me."

She tilted her head at him. "Can't other Supers see you?" she asked. Jack shook his head.

"I don't think so. No one has seen me for 250 years."

She gasped. "You're 250 years old? Wow."

Jack shrugged. "Well, almost. Give or take. I stopped keeping count."

"Do you know Lucius?"

"Who?"

"You know, Frozone!"

"Oh! Yeah, he's pretty cool." He winked and smirked. It took her a moment to catch the joke and she giggled behind her hands. "He's never seen me either, though."

"Why not?"

He shrugged again. And she looked a little bit sad. "250 years is a really, really long time," she mused, "What did you do?"

By demonstration Jack called a large, delicately detailed snowflake out of the air, floating it over his open palm. Her eyes widened in awe. "So you do make the snow!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands and looking giddily up at him. "You really did make this snow just for me!"

Jack felt he might be glowing. "I heard your wish last night."

"You did? Do you live here?"

Casting around him, Jack had to nod. "I guess I do. I go all over the world, but I always come back here. This... this is where I was made."

"Where's your mom and dad?"

The question landed harder than Jack wanted it to. "I don't have any," he admitted, and Violet looked really upset.

"What about friends?"

Determined now to spin the conversation around, Jack said the most positive thing he could think of, beaming down at her. "Just you, Violet Parr." and her eyes grew so wide Jack wondered if she would disappear on him again, but she didn't. Her small little hand reached forward but then she stopped herself again, appearing to be thinking hard.

"Jack Frost," she said, testing the name in her mouth. Her hand drew towards him again and he couldn't stop himself from leaning in just a little.

"Just Jack is okay," he whispered carefully; anticipating, despite himself, everything he expected to go wrong...

"Jack, are you real?"

It hit him like a physical blow, coming so precisely from this young child. He exhaled through the ebbing pain, refusing to break eye contact with her. Such piercing round blue eyes, so like his own but so different at the same time. Jack had asked himself (and the Moon) that same question countless times over his long life, and never received an answer, never reached one that satisfied him; he hated the thought he might not be real, really might be only a figment of someone's imagination at any time – and the instant the myth of Jack Frost died out of common knowledge, so would Jack Frost himself.

Terrifying himself in doing it, Jack held his hand out palm-up toward Violet, and her eyes trailed to it briefly before locking on his again. "Why don't you see for yourself?"

After a tiny hesitation, Violet Parr's tiny hand edged closer. Closer. Jack's heart pounded rabbit-fast in his chest and it grew hard for him to breathe. When her fingers stretched just hairs away from his he couldn't take it anymore shut his eyes tight couldn't bear to see her pass through him like he wasn't there because he wasn't there he never was and-

…!

Pinpoints of fire on his icy palm.

Her fingertips.

Jack wanted to collapse at the heat flaring through his body, from those little points of contact. Tears sprang to his eyes again and it all felt amazing. He still couldn't open his eyes and have it all turn out to be false but he closed his hand around her fingers and squeezed them and felt her warmth and she complained that his hands were really cold and he hiccuped on a sob.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Violet asked him, and he looked at her, eyes dazzling.

"I'm fantastic," he breathed. "Violet, you are incredible. Don't you ever let anyone tell you otherwise. Promise?"

But Daddy was Mr. Incredible. But... Jack Frost had also said she was Very Special. Maybe he didn't know that much...

But Jack actually knew just enough, and he smiled so hugely at her, looking ready to just hug her and never let go if she gave him permission, that she decided she would mind him and promise him.

And finally he stood straight and steadied his staff in his hand and somehow she understood he was leaving. "Jack!" she blurted before she thought twice; he'd already leapt onto the wind, but he halted for her. "Can I see you again?"

Not even hesitating, he grinned at her, an impish smirk that promised so much more than merely seeing him again. "Of course. Tonight, if you want. Look for me." Enthusiastically she nodded, and with nary a blink he whipped away on a gust of wind up into the air, onward to the sky. Violet watched him go, could faintly hear him shouting in elation. She grinned. And realized.

She'd made a new friend already.

And, he was the coolest friend ever!