#csverse

Charlie frowned, brushing errant snowflakes off of him. He stepped forwards until he was in front of the sprite, who was still catching her breath. "Must be scary to have that much magic, huh?"

"A little bit, yeah. My roots haven't thawed in weeks, and I have a really nice hair colour."

Charlie laughed.

"No, seriously! Stop laughing! It's dark brown, right? But it also looks black. BUT. Sometimes, when the sun hits the ends juuuust right, it looks reddish. I don't wanna kill my roots, you know?"

Charlie sighed. "I don’t think this is just about your hair, Jacquie."

"It's not. Us Frosts cope with humour as best as we can," Jacqueline said with a soft smile, bringing her knees up to her chest.

"Mind if I join you?"

"Sure, snow's all nice and cold."

Charlie sat beside her, catching his breath. "Coping, huh?"

"Mhmm." Jacqueline replied, running her hands through her hair. "Having two essences is like. It's a LOT. It's hard. Especially when one is double your age. And Legendary. Not that I'm not, but like. It's different."

"No, I get it. Status versus like, title, right?"

"Yeah, exactly," Jacqueline said, sighing and leaning back in the snow. "Anyway. Magical essences are a huge part of a magibean's whole being and identity. And even though Legends and their Legates can literally share their essences with one another, and ours were able to give us theirs to keep safe," she said, summoning the blue magic again, "they aren't ours. And they're kind of squishing us."

"Squishing?"

"Yeah. The longer we hold onto our Legendary counterpart's essences, the more dominant their essence becomes, the less dominant ours is. We're powerful little fucks, but our Legends? Even more so than us. So our essences are slowly getting squashed. It's why Dite's been grumpy lately, for instance."

"You've all been taking on traits from your Legends," Charlie realized.

"Yeah. And for some of us there's a few nasty side effects," Jacqueline said with a sigh, closing her fist and dismissing the dark blue magic. "See: my roots. I freeze dry, right? It keeps the hair out of my face and cuts static down which is great because I get really zappy sometimes! But it never stays for me."

"Why not?"

"I can't permafrost. Mom thinks it's a side effect of global warming. Dad thinks it's heat sprite lineage. But you see these roots? See how they're crispy white? And icy?"

"Yeah."

"I'm not doing that. I'm waking up like this every day! It's not going away," she said pushing herself forward and huffing. "I think that having Jack's essence is freezing me a bit."

"You mean like, freezing you freezing? Like, like your brother was?"

Jacqueline nodded. "I've been feeling a lot angrier lately, and sure, I'm angry sometimes, but levels like this? I haven't seen it since I—" she looked startled; she glanced at Charlie, mouth still open to speak though she was silent. She snapped her jaw shut and hugged her knees, burying her face in them.

"Oh, shit. Hey, Jacqueline, it's okay," Charlie said, throwing his arm around her shoulder and pulling her in for a side hug. Though she kept an iron grip around her legs, she didn't stop Charlie from pulling her in. "You won't freeze. You never have," Charlie said.

"That's the thing, Charlie!" Jacqueline exclaimed, head shooting up. "I keep saying that, and everyone thinks that but it's not—it's not true!"

She inhaled, looking up at the sparkling icy ceiling above them. "Do you know why I managed to fend off the shadows, when they took your Dad, for as long as I did?"

"I assumed it was because you were a badass."

"Awwh, thank you! That's-that's sweet! I am, aren't I?" She said with a smile, holding her head in her hands and staring at her friend.

"I'll say. I saw you kick through that cloud of fear like it was nothing."

"Because it was nothing," she said. Sighing, she let go of her head, hugging her knees once again. "When they descended on me, they showed me my worst fear. It was me. Frozen."

"That's your worst fear?"

"It was. But the thing is, as I stood there and saw myself, you know, cold, no warm flush, angry beyond belief, I realized that I wasn't afraid of myself anymore."

"How come?"

"Because the image it showed me? Was straight out of Frostmas. I had already lived it. And I survived it. I wasn't afraid of frozie Jacqueline anymore. I had been her."

"And then you punched fear right in the face!" Charlie said with a very excitable mimed punch.

Jacqueline laughed, though it sounded watery. "I sure fucking did. And lasted for a bit longer. But then he came."

"The Boogie Man."

"King of Darkness. Erebus," Jacqueline corrected. "And he found my new fear, and. Well. It worked. I couldn't break out of it that time. I don't know what your Dad did, but whatever it was? I think it saved B-Man and I."

Charlie frowned, doing some fast thinking. "Wait. If you lived that fear already, does that mean that you have been frozen?"

"When Jack used the Escape Clause on your Dad, he created an alternate timeline where he was Santa."

"Which would make you Jack Frost."

Jacqueline nodded. "But because of the Legend-Legate connection, I still remembered the proper timeline. And I grew so obsessed with fixing it and proving that Jack wasn't actually supposed to be Santa, that I accidentally froze myself in the process. And when the timeline was fixed, I came back frozen. But not for long. Your sister thawed my brother. And the shock of that, the power of that was so strong that I felt it to, and it thawed me as well."

"Lucy's a powerhouse!"

Jacqueline laughed. "Yes, and I can never thank her enough. I've never told anyone this, Charlie," she said, looking back at him now.

"But you still have your flawless record. The timeline never happened, right? So technically, you never actually froze."

"That's the thing. It never happened. But my brother and I still remember it like it did. And when I came back from that timeline, I came back…frozen," she said, hiding her face once again.

"It's okay. It happens to sprites from time to time, doesn't it?"

"It can," said Jacqueline, lifting her head a bit. "But that's not the point. The point is, here I am, priding myself on being the one existing winter sprite that didn't have a nasty case of hardened heart, ever, at ALL, but that's a LIE, Charlie. I…lied. And I was terrified of what would happen if my friends found out."

"I don't think a single one of your friends wouldn't be supportive," Charlie said.

"I'd like to think that, too! But that what if is really strong, Charles."

He laughed. "I hate that you call me that."

"And I love that you hate it. I live to bother," she said, seriously.

"You know, I got that vibe. I think that's the middle child talking," Charlie said with a grin.

Jacqueline laughed, exhaling. "When Erebus rammed into me, that's what I saw. I saw B-Man and Elle being absolutely disgusted that I had frozen. Elle stopped being friends with me. My family kept me at arms length; the Twins were scared as could be. And DITE! Ugh that one hurt the most, Charlie. She was crying," Jacqueline said, with the saddest face Charlie had ever seen on the sprite. "Because of me. Because I lied to her. That hurt so much."

"Wow, you've really got it bad for her," Charlie said before he could stop himself.

"What? No I don't. What do you mean?"

"What do you mean what do I mean?"

"I've got it bad for her? Are you saying that I have a crush on her?"

"Well, yeah! NO. Wait. Hold on. Don't tell me you didn't know you had a crush on her."

"I don't?" Jacqueline said, doubty.

"Are you sure about that? I mean, you just told me your worst fear, Jacqueline. And in it, the thing that upset you the most was Dite being upset at you. Not your family, not Bernard or Elle, but Dite."

"We're really good friends?"

"Oh my god, this is the best! You really don't think you have a crush on her?"

Jacqueline looked panicked. "No! I just. You know. She's really nice and sweet and funny, and oh my gods she kicks ass, have you seen her in action?"

Charlie shook his head, staring at Jacqueline's roots. The more she talked about Dite, the less…icy they looked. "I can't say that I have," he said, poking Jacqueline's head.

"Hey! What's that all about?" she asked, rubbing her head.

"Check out your hand," Charlie said, as ice chipped off of the sprite's hair.

She gasped, scratching her scalp a bit more. When she opened her palm, ice was sitting in it, melting.

"And that happened when you started talking about Dite."

"No," she said, looking aghast at the ice in her hands.

"Yes," Charlie said, just as aghast.

"This happened? When I talked about Dite?!"

"Yeah!" Charlie said, laughingly. "Just the thought of her alone gets you all slushy," he said, nudging her shoulder.

"AhhhhHHHHH," Jacqueline squealed, her face very, very flushed. "Holy snowballs. I totally have a crush on Dite. Oh my god. Oh no."

"Well THAT'S not what I expected to hear. It's okay, Jacqueline! There are worse people to crush on!"

"No, Charlie, it's not that! She's amazing. It's just. It's embarrassing, now that I'm thinking about it. I think I've had a crush on her for like, three hundred years."

"Three hundred years?!"

"Yes!"

"Three whole CENTURIES!

"YES."

"And you didn't know??"

"No! I didn't! You think we'd be having this conversation now if I had known?!"

"Your Jack is showing."

"Shush," she replied, rubbing her head. "I am the dumbest bitch ALIVE," she finally said, hands up in the air as she groaned and once again fell back into the snowbank. "She's literally Cupid, Charlie! She's probably known the whole time! That's so embarrassing, of all the people to get a crush on—"

"Again, she's not the worst," Charlie said with a smile.

"Absolutely not," Jacqueline shot back fast, with a happy sigh. "I should ask her out. On like, a date."

"I think so too. I mean, thoughts of her are already melting you a little bit. And I think we both know that she would be your number one supporter if you were to freeze."

Jacqueline laughed. "She's everyone's number one supporter. She's nice like that. She's nice to everyone."

"I think she'd understand if you told her you were frozen once. I think everyone would understand, Jacqueline. I mean, you told me, and I'm still here," he said with a shrug.

"Well, yeah, but it's not like you can go anywhere. We're trapped in a hole in the ground."

"Lighten up, would you? I didn't run away immediately, did I? I'm still here for you, Jacqueline. And so is Dite, and Elle and Bernard and your family, I mean, your brother has known the entire time and he certainly hasn't judged you either. He's been there before. I know telling the truth can be scary," Charlie said, getting up and offering her a hand. "But it's not so scary when you're with the people you love. Including the goddess of pleasure," Charlie added, with an eyebrow waggle for good measure.

Jacqueline snorted, grabbing Charlie's hand. "I can't beLIEVE how dense I am," she said, pushing herself up as Charlie pulled.

"Nor can I. I thought you were the Legate with the brain cell!"

"GOD no. What gave you that idea? That's Xander," Jacqueline said, her grip on Charlie's hand tightening. "Thanks for that, Charlie. I really appreciate it."

"Of course! What're friends for? Ready to go?"

"Are you?"

"Whenever you are," he said with a squeeze.

"In that case," Jacqueline replied with an almost feral grin, "Bundle up, bitch! It's about to get chillay."

And with that, the pair disappeared in a flurry of two tone blue sparks and snowflakes.

And not a moment too soon.