Jack Frost sits bolt upright, stick at the ready. He had fallen into a frozen lake before and if he hadn't been cursed with this immortality, he would have died. The boy flounders to the shore and shoves past the group of laughing kids.
Running again with the others on his heels, he swerves towards the forest.
The poor boy is thoroughly soaked and shivering in the cold. Jack watches but does not interfere.. yet.
The boy does not hesitate to push past the vines and branches once he reaches the Forest. The pack stops immediately upon seeing that he was actually going to enter. They call on him to stop, that they were only joking but the cries fall on deaf ears.
The boy, who Jack judges to be eleven or twelve now that he's closer, stumbles to a stop a few hundred feet in and collapses sobbing against the base of a thick tree.
Maybe it was because the boy looked like a young version of Grover, with curly brown hair that was just a little too long. Maybe it was because Jack Frost had always been protective over children.
Whatever the case, Jack was moved by the boy's tears and went to him. He stayed quiet and wordlessly sat down beside the boy. Jack knew what this felt like, so he waited, letting the boy take charge of starting the conversation when he was ready.
"Go away." Came the first muffled sniffles from the general direction of where the kids head should be, had it not been buried under layers of hood, sleeves and scarf.
"Leave me alone."
Jack paused, making sure the boy was done speaking before answering. "Do you really want me to go or do you just want someone willing to stay?"
The muffled cries quieted a little and after a moment, one big watery brown eye could be seen peeking through the floppy brown curls.
"Do you want to stay?"
Jack nods his gravely, not a hint of amusement or teasing on his face.
"Why? You don't even know me."
Jack, sensing the boy's need for honesty turns to face him and answers.
"Simple, no one should ever have to cry alone."
YOU ARE READING
Jack, not Jackson
FanfictionWARNING: this book is about PTSD. Percy is blamed for what happens in the last battle. The deaths of the seven, Nico, Reyna, camp. All of them gone. even Annabeth, who had survived torture in hell with him. As punishment, He is cursed with a type of...
