"Pick one daddy." Roxas said, getting a bit impatient.
"Okay, okay be patient." A trickle of annoyance came from him; Jakoul hated being rushed as much as Jack did. He picked Red Riding Hood.
"Come on sweetie." Jack said as he walked into the other room. Roxas clapped and followed Jack to the other room. Jamie settled into one of two chairs he'd fashioned recently for the main room and Emma takes another. Jack smiled and started to read.
"Her name was Little Red Riding Hood for the red hood her grandma made her; she wore it everywhere. Her mother told her to take the goodies with her to grandma's house and visit and to be careful and don't talk to strangers." He narrated each voice. Roxas smiled, snuggling against Jack as he listened to the story. He paused for suspense.
"...and do you know what she did next?" Roxas looked up at Jack.
"What daddy?"
"She looked at the wolf dressed as the grandmother and said 'oh grandma what big eyes you have'..." He continued to narrate her voice and the wolf's in the exchange that Jamie knew by heart.
"...and the wolf went to eat her but the woods man came in and chopped him to pieces and they all lived a happily ever after."
"Yay!" Roxas clapped happily. Suddenly, like clockwork when the sun went down, he awoke and would take over...
"Oh God." Jack winced, shaking; Roxas looked worried.
"Dada." Jamie walked in, he'd sensed Jack's worry and picked up Roxas.
"Your auntie as a treat for you in the other room, go see what it is." He says with an encouraging smile and Roxas runs off. Jamie's smile doesn't leave until Roxas is out of the room.
"He's up, isn't he?" Jack groaned, gnashing and grinding his teeth; clutching the wooden window frame.
"MM hmmM..." Jamie sighed.
"This is like a less pleasant version of Angel's deal." He grumbled a little.
"Anything I can do to help?"
"No." He hissed again, similar to Angel's... he would die.
"Alright then, but don't make this a bigger deal than it is. No need to stress yourself out." Jamie replied and left the room. Roxas was fast asleep in Emma's arms, Jamie kissed his little boy gently and she left the cavern with him. Jamie sighed wistfully, but there was no way he would allow Roxas to stay unless he could ensure no harm would come to him while Jakoul was in control... Jakoul wasn't like Angel.
"No, Jakoul no..." He whimpered, fighting him all the way; it would kill me if he didn't let him have control for the night. Jamie returned to the room, but he had no real intention of aiding Jakoul... only did he work to ease Jack's pain with his light. It was the most he was willing to do. Unlike with Angel, Jamie had not the slightest of inclinations to help the other gain any sort of control. Jakoul would have to fight on his own.
"Damn it, Jack, would you quit? You're gonna kill us both!"
"I will not stop, I don't care if it kills me!" Jamie sighed a little. I do though... doesn't mean I want to help but... Jack... at least live for Roxas if not for me. I think... I could... maybe... but Roxas... he still needs you. Jack's eyes widened, pupils shrinking as pain went through him.
"O-Okay..." He groaned in pain as Jakoul was slowly but quickly let in; Jack went limp unresponsive for a couple minutes.
"That's much better." Jakoul said scraping non existent dirt off. Jamie rolled his eyes.
"Don't be such a drama queen." Though he'd a good idea what sort of fight Jack likely put up as much as he remembered from the days of actually having to HELP Angel.
"Well you don't know what a pain it is having to fight for your body now do you Bennett?" He snapped nastily and floated.
"Well, I'm gonna work on that barrier see ya."
"Considering I actually helped Angel... you'd be surprised Jakoul." He replied evenly as the other floated off. Jamie wasn't worried about Jakoul working on the barrier. There wasn't anyway of breaking it. Only Jamie could dispel the actual barrier and if Jakoul wanted him to do THAT... well... there wasn't much chance of that happening actually. Another failure, another day.
"Stupid barrier." Jamie spent the evening going from room to room, doing cleaning. Glaring, he tackled Jamie, choking him.
"Open the barrier, now." Jamie managed to push him off him after a brief struggle.
"Not on your life. Death doesn't scare me, so try a new one." He growled and sliced Jamie's arm open using ice shard.
"Do it or Jack here is gonna feel so much pain his eyeballs will bleed." He snarled. Jamie didn't even flinch at the cut.
"Which would be the same as harming yourself." Jamie replied, barely taking note of the blood as it slowly began to pool.
"Do you honestly think there's anything you can do to force me to undo that barrier? Jack and I were in hell. LITERALLY. You should know that already or have you forgotten it was Death who sealed you in the first place?" He snarled.
"Just do it."
"Or what? Do you honestly think you have anything to threaten me with? Believe me... Death was a good deal worse than you." His eyes reddened considerably, bloody red.
"You win this round Bennett, but next time I won't hold back." Jamie rolled his eyes. Really? What did Jakoul possibly think he could do? Once Jakoul let him up, Jamie iced over the wound to close it before he went to the bathroom to wrap it up. Jack probably wouldn't be happy when he figured out what Jakoul had done, but Jamie couldn't care less. He'd suffered worse at the hands of Death and he was a spirit after all, simple things like this wound weren't really that big of a deal. He'd be healed up again in a matter of days like it hadn't ever happened. Jakoul moaned in anger.
"Fucking bastards controlling stuff..." He floated off into the garden, that was all he could get out to. Jamie made supper, spaghetti and meatballs this time with some garlic bread and buttered mashed potatoes. Annoyed, Jakoul made some new darker creations of ice to the garden; black ice roses. Jack thought that's kind of pretty, within himself; even in such a dark being they could create much beauty... if they tried. When he came out to say that supper was ready, he saw the additions to the ice garden. He looked at them a moment without comment, but he didn't do a thing about them either.
"Supper is ready if you're hungry." It was all he said before going back inside, he'd made sure that Jakoul had finished with his detail on the latest piece before speaking. Jakoul grunted a little, before leaving the rest of the roses crumbled, as he wanted them to; all except one. Jamie settled at the table, having filled his plate of what he wanted and began to eat. Jakoul served himself and went into the other room to get a glass of juice. Jamie didn't attempt conversation but was civil in mannerisms nonetheless. Jakoul was same, but more so than Jamie; he sat a napkin on his lap and kept elbows off the table, eating correctly more so than Jack ever had. After almost half an hour of silence, Jamie finally made a comment.
"You and Angel seem to share one thing. Manners."
"Hmm but we're not the same." He said politely as he ate and cut his steak into small pieces.
"Not by a long shot. It's the only thing you two have in common." He smiled.
"Suppose so." He said before cleaning his plate in the sink and setting it in a drying rack. Jamie did the same thing.
"I suppose were your aims different. We MIGHT get along. Oddly enough." It was the last thing Jamie said for the evening.
"Look, we may live together at this moment but it doesn't mean I'll be nice." Jamie laughed at the notion, apparently finding it amusing; the thought of Jakoul being NICE. Jakoul huffed stressed and sat outside most of the day; truthfully, he didn't wanna terrorize anyone... he just wanted to see the world. Try things, he played with his powers, making beautiful black frost creations... so many things similar to Jack's own work. Jamie watched him work on occasion, but never said anything. One day, Jamie sat outside watching Jakoul before deciding to try something. It was something he'd never done with Jack because, honestly, it wasn't needed. The snow near Jakoul slowly swirled up before forming into what looked like the figure of a lovely woman. A sort of winter siren almost, made entirely of snow, with eyes gleaming white with the power that allowed her to move about. Instead of singing, as one might expect such a lovely thing to do, she instead danced a waltz. Jakoul smiled and created a black iced version of it, it danced the same; it was the first time, seeing Jakoul smile. Not a sneer, a gnarling angry scowl of a smile... it was nothing menacing, a normal smile. Jamie smiled a little, directing the waltzing figure to twirl about in time with Jakoul's creation. It was a strange, unusual sight... the black and pure white dancing about each other. Jakoul was amazed; he looked like a curious child at that moment and created fantasy like creatures to dance with his creation. Jamie echoed his creations with pure snow and frosted ones to dance about with their counterparts. Jamie moved over to get a better view as he controlled his versions. He seemed fascinated with the dance he had started. Jakoul clapped, as if a child full of wonder watching a show and he made blackish dolphins; silver ones to be exact, the ice was turning silver. No longer a pure black. Jamie was a little surprised he could manage that as he sent snow dolphins to frolic with Jakoul's. Jakoul giggled.
"Ee ee" he would say childishly; it was a whole new side of Jakoul uncovered. He was good inside, just he never showed it 'cause of Gale. Jamie seemed quietly amused by this, he settled a few feet away from Jakoul as he continued to control the dance of his creatures. Jakoul giggled and played with the figures; sadly, one touch by his hand killed the white snow, turning it black. Tears gathered.
"Oh." He sat back, scared to touch the amazing beauties Jamie made; he sniffed, he never wanted to destroy such beauty... he hated his colors. He hated black ice... snow, he hated himself so much. Jamie sensed this. His words were quiet.
"You know, you shouldn't hate who you are." He watched the figure that Jakoul had turned into black snow continue to frolic with the others but it was out of his control now.
"You think what you create isn't beautiful? You'd be wrong." Jakoul jolted, standing up.
"But look at what I had done! I can only see black now; I always kill beauty... I'm like this because MiM didn't want Jack to have me as a good part of him. I died when he died and so I will be this way... and I hate myself for it everyday."
"It is black, yes, but black doesn't mean it's not beautiful. There is beauty in what you have created, but it is hard to see it because it is all you have seen. Consider it this way... I find beauty in the snow I create because I couldn't always do this. I always admired beauty I could not create. I know you have seen, as Jack has, the rise and fall of many human artists like Picasso and Da Vinci... both of whom did not see the fruition of what they have wrought. They are renowned names in the world of art, their work said to be of the highest quality... and yet in their day no one said that of them. Why? Because they were used to it. They had seen its like from those two during the time and were no stranger to their type of art, they did not value it and the artists who created it didn't necessarily like their work either. I don't know about Picasso, but I know that Da Vinci wanted to be an inventor, not an artist." Jakoul wanted to bang his head at this.
"Look, I don't want to see black my entire life."
"Who says you have to? You can see what I make, right?" He winced.
"I'll never be like Jack, and he'll never forgive me for what I have done to his life, Jamie. I'm a monster. I can't change, just forget this happened... forget about me." It was sun up, Jakoul's time was up. Jamie considered the words. It was true, Jakoul wouldn't ever be like Jack and he probably wouldn't forgive him... hell he hadn't forgave Angel yet, but that didn't make Jakoul the monster he thought he was. Yeah, he'd killed... but was there a reason? He wasn't pure evil... so... Jamie considered that he needed to talk to Jakoul more. Evil didn't know the meaning of beauty, couldn't appreciate it... but Jakoul... he knew. Jack groaned, having returned into control.
"Jamie."
"Hmm?" Jack shuttered, he felt gross; he hated Jakoul, but if he only knew Jakoul wasn't the monster he was before...
"Something has changed." Jamie murmured quietly before he went off to make breakfast for Jack and then he left to make some snow for a while, while he was out he caught a quick nap before returning to the cavern with a ten foot sandwich for lunch. Jack was starved but he cut the sandwich in half for Jamie to have some; Jakoul seemed to hum a sweet tune within his mind.
"What's got him so happy?"
"We had some fun out with the snow last night." Jamie said. Not sure how much Jakoul wanted him saying. Jack jolted.
"Huh?" He glared and sent it over the bond to Jakoul. Jamie shrugged a little.
"We talked and played in the snow. He can't leave what else do you expect him to do?" Jack snap and growled in anger, Jakoul winced and hid inside the hole. Jamie raised an eyebrow at that.
"What's got you so worked up?" Jack growled, Jakoul actually laughed a normal laugh.
"Jamie -hehe- he's he's jealous of me ahahahaha!" Jack growled and punched Jakoul in the gut, making him cough up blood within in the bond; it hurt and he cried in pain now scurrying away from Jack's mental self in fear. Jamie looked at Jack in astonishment.
"Really?" Jack shook his head.
"Am not!" He snapped and floated away from Jamie. Jamie didn't press, but he was sort of inclined to believe the other...
"STOP TRYING TO FAKE IT JAKOUL!" Jakoul winced.
"Jack, truly I'm not-" Jack didn't let him finish as he locked him up as before.
"Don't wanna hear it; not one thing." Jamie almost felt sorry for the other... almost. He hadn't forgotten what Gale and Jakoul had done and he wasn't going to forgive that so easily. Jakoul wasn't Angel, who had just been a repressed part of Jack. In the other room, Jack glared at himself in the mirror; sighing, he brushed his teeth, took a shower and went to bed early. Jamie waited for nightfall and the inevitable. He found this situation very strange... he actually wanted to talk to Jakoul...
"Please Jack... if you die Jamie will really miss you; he needs you." Jack fought him a while longer but relented as he cared for Jamie and Roxas. Jakoul took control, panting as falling into control hurt when Jack fought him. Jamie was unaware of the argument, simply waiting in the other room for Jakoul to appear. Jakoul came in, scared for some reason; he never really felt fear nervous or any such emotions before, it was all new to him so it scared him.
"What's wrong?" Jamie asks gently. This was a first. Jakoul jolted.
" 'M scared and I dunno why." Jamie moved over to him, he really didn't believe he was going to do this... but... what the hell? Things hadn't been normal really since he'd gone and found out Jack wasn't ever human to begin with. He slipped his arms around Jakoul gently, his voice soft and reassuring.
"It's alright. You don't have to be afraid. You're safe here." He sniffed, actually crying; unsure what to do anymore.
"I don't know anymore... I don't know what purpose I have now."
"If I may ask... why did you do what you did the first time? Why did you kill? Why did you bring Gale out in me?"
"I... I was full of Jack's anger... hate... uncontrollable feelings, the first time and all that happened after your sister's death... he blamed himself for what happened, Jamie, he blamed himself for a long time. He blamed himself for your sadness, everything for you... he blamed himself for not being there... everything, and it piled and piled... and I used to be his light. Now I'm the dark, and I guess I turned light a little bit... I guess I was sick of being stuck in the hate and it rubbed off on me... that is why I killed." Jamie sighed.
"I told him it wasn't his fault... why doesn't he ever listen?" He hugged Jakoul close.
"I don't blame you, no one wants to be stuck in something they don't like." Jakoul sniffed.
"Jamie... I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry for everything!" He started to cry hysterically, a broken cry; one that held so much pain and regret. Jamie doesn't say 'it's okay', because honestly... it isn't. He'd controlled Jack, turned him into a puppet; deliberately hurt him all for his own twisted desire. He couldn't just forgive that, but... he wasn't a monster and he felt a twinge of compassion for the one he saw now. He didn't say anything, he just held him close and let him cry. Jakoul sniffed.
"I don't expect you to forgive me for what I've done, but I just want you to know... I'm sorry and I love you as much as Jack does... and I promise I'll do everything in my power to help you fight Gale when that time comes." He was trying to make Jamie feel better. Jamie wasn't sure he could trust Jakoul to keep to that.
"Why did you bring out Gale? You never answered that one." He said after a long moment of silence. Jakoul sniffed.
"Because I didn't want to be alone and I wanted Jack to have you. I'm not a complete monster... I know how much he loves you; after a while... I couldn't see, Jamie, what I was doing to you... to Jack. I did some thinking locked up and I regret everything Jamie. I regret everything I did."
"I see. Well you share that in common with Jack I suppose. He hates being alone... I've lost count how many times I've had to reassure him of that. I don't think you're a monster exactly. Monsters don't care about what they do, they don't care if they're alone or not. Monsters are incapable of feeling... I can't say I trust you or that I ever will... but I believe you when you say you regret it." Jakoul nodded.
"I want to earn your trust, honestly I do, and I don't expect you to ever trust me but can we at least try?" Jamie sighed.
"I won't fault you for at least trying." He smiled.
"Let's start new." He said.
"Hi, I'm Jakoul Frost. Jack's light and dark counterpart when full of hate." He put his hand out to shake. Jamie stared at him a moment before laughing.
"I don't think it works QUITE like that, but good try." He looked down, falling into tears again and left the room he just wanted to try fresh something to build trust... and Jamie had laughed and crushed it. Jamie nearly smacked himself.
"Oh geez... I'm sorry. Don't take that seriously." Jamie groaned, and went after him and hugged Jakoul.
"I know you're trying, but honestly, it doesn't work like that in real life. You can't just start over. Especially not with how long I've known you." He gently tilted Jakoul's head up so that their gazes meet.
"But that doesn't mean I'm not willing to try." He sniffed, nodding.
"Okay." He leaned into Jamie's arms, liking the comfort; he'd never got that with Gale. Jamie hugged Jakoul close, suddenly he remembered something he really didn't want to... but a thought occurred to him.
"There was a reason you never took Gales' offer... wasn't there." He said slowly.
"You had no interest in women..." Jakoul sniffed, nodding.
"No, I'm-" He sighed.
"I'm in love with Gale, but he'd never probably like me back."
"I wish I could tell you one way or the other there, but I honestly don't know. You never tried." Jamie said gently. Jakoul sniffed.
"Oh, it's day time... it's time to switch. Thank you for at least tying Jamie, Jack may be harder to gain trust from but I sure as hell will try." Jamie smiled a little.
"Yeah... he will be." Jack grunts, opening his eyes they were blue once more, sapphires; unlike Jakoul's blackish blue which had turned into a dark blue.
"Good morning Snowflake." He said gently, kissing Jack's nose. Jack smiled happily.
"Jamie, I missed having you in my arms." He smiled gently.
"You should know by now love that you need only ask." He kissed Jack lovingly. Jack smiled as he locked lips with Jamie lovingly. Jamie slowly deepened the kiss. How long had it been since they'd had a chance to be alone like this since Roxas had been born? Granted, things weren't perfect, but they were ideal and he trailed his kisses from Jack's lips to his neck as he picked him up and carried him to their room. He intended to take the opportunity they'd been given to have a little fun...