Warm Ice (Jack Frost X Reader)

Chapter 4

(A LITTLE NOTE FOR THE WEIRD PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY READ THIS: I know the story is going on very slowly, but the main plot will appear in the next chapter(s). STAY TUNED GUYZ)

“A-TCHOO” You sneezed for the umpteenth time. “Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to go out with an old coat.” You thought. “Should’ve brought my scarf…”

You started coughing painfully, wiping your nose with your thousandth tissue of the day. Your throat was burning, and your lips were chapped.
Your little promenade had turned into a hike of several hours, and you were discovering new corners of your neighborhood that were unknown to you until now. Even if your coat made you default, you were still grateful to be able to feel the chilly wind on your cheeks and hair.

You didn’t care about the snow in your boots or the fact that you couldn’t feels your toes anymore.
Walking made your whole body feel lighter.

The clouds began to cover the sky, making you feel smothered. You started to walk faster.

“I should go back home…” You whispered to yourself while blowing your nose.

As you were turning around, you heard little furtive steps, as if a squirrel was promptly jumping from tree to tree. But you didn’t pay attention.

All you wanted was to go home and enjoy a warm cup of hot chocolate.

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Jack couldn’t stop following the “coat girl”.

It was pretty easy though: she was as slow as a snail, and she wore a flashy, kind of lousy (f/c) winter coat. The sleeves were too short for her, and the collar did not even cover half of her neck. The back was stained with some kind of strange…substance. Worst of all, there was a huge hole in the middle of the hood.

And apparently, she was aware of the ugliness of her clothing: when she’d pass in front of a showcase, she would discreetly glance at her reflection and softly chuckle.

“At least”, he thought, “She has enough sense of humor to laugh of herself.”

She walked the whole day, stopping only to sit on a bench or to eat lunch, and she seemed to enjoy her hike. Even if she looked…kind of sick.

She’d cough or sniff every two minutes, and the amount of tissues she had used exceeded the normal average (Not that he’d habitually count the number of tissues people used, but…well, yes, he did. It wasn’t like he really had something else to do.). Her nose was bright red and she had dark circles under her eyes. Also, he noticed she was often rubbing her wrist while wincing. Jack thought that maybe she got hurt when helping the little boy, few days ago.

He chuckled.

Yep, that girl was DEFINITELY sick.
But he promised he would find a way to give her her coat back.

The young man followed her until she arrived near her home. Before she opened the door, he jumped in the backyard, landed on a slide and placed the girl’s coat on the edge of a frozen trampoline. He waited until she got in, and then sat behind a small tree, still in the girl’s backyard.

“Well, well…”

He grinned.

“Time to proceed to some…experiments.”
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You sighed as you felt the warmth on your face.  You quickly removed your cloak, boots and mittens, and jumped on the couch, closing your eyes. Without your mother, father or brother, the atmosphere of your house was so peaceful you could fall asleep just thinking about it…

You REALLY did like winter, but you could not deny the fact that you loved the comfort of your domicile.

“Home sweet home, huh.” You whispered.

Half an hour later, while zapping through the channels of your television, you realized that you totally had forgotten why you actually came back home: hot chocolate. You quickly jumped on your feet and trotted to the kitchen, enjoying the fact that you could sing out loud without anyone minding. While pouring milk in your mug, you sang your lungs out your favorite song in the most dramatic way possible (you even improvised some dance moves to make it more fabulous).

You had just put your mug in the microwave when you heard someone knocking on the back door.

You frowned.

“For god’s sake, who would knock on the back door at this time of the day…”
You ran to the door and opened it slowly, letting a cold wind into the house.

No one.

“What the…” You looked at your left, then at your right: still no one.

“Hey? If it’s a joke, it’s not funny okay?” You yelled.

It was getting darker and colder outside, and the snow was slowly falling, its puffy flakes covering the roofs of the neighborhood. The sight of the white-covered housetops made you think, somehow, of the old nursery tales you used to read in your childhood.

The first one that came to your mind was Peter Pan.

Since you were a little girl, you always had that one, very simple but unrealistic dream. You’ve always wished that one day, whenever it will be, you would be looking out the window when you’d see him. Floating slowly towards you. A naughty but adorable grin on his lips. Taking you into his arms and flying to a very, very far and unknown land.

Your Peter.

Or whatever his name was.

But until the appropriate moment, you thought you shouldn’t really worry about that. After all, there were seven billion people in the world, and you were still young. Why would it bother you to be single? And all your life was not summed up to boys and clothing. You had your other little problems, and people had theirs. Your time just…hadn’t come yet.

Even if you wished it would come soon.

As you were about to get back inside, something caught your attention on your trampoline (until then, you didn’t even notice your parents had forgotten to dismantle the thing).
You put your boots back on and went closer.

“Wait, is that…”

You slowly grabbed the thing and frowned, rubbing your arms to stay warm. Chuckling, you looked around.

“What the…Who brought this here?” You raised your eyebrows, laughing. “Well, whoever you are, that was very kind of you!”

You were heading back to the door when you heard someone giggle near the mulberry tree, close to the trampoline. Turning to face whoever was there, you received a snowball right between your eyes, making you fall on your back, letting out a scream of surprise.

“HEY! WHO DID THIS?” The snow slowly fell from your forehead, and you shook your head to make sure there weren’t any snowflakes in your hair. You sneezed.
“Okay, this is really, really not funny. Just come out and let me thank you for bringing back my coat here, or stay where you are and let me kick your butt when the proper moment comes.”

You added, nervously. “You have five seconds.”

A burst of laughter was heard from beside the tree, followed by a soft voice.
“Ah, missy… I knew that was impossible. What was I thinking.” The person let out a light chuckle.“Sorry for hurting you, if that were the case…”

“Oh, uh…it’s alright…”

The person suddenly stopped laughing.

“Uh, what?”

You frowned. “I-I said it’s alright, but can you please show yourself, sir?” Your grip tightened on your coat.

“W…wait a second, y-you mean…” The stranger was stammering. He sounded kind of young.

Getting angry, your voice started shaking.

“Listen, sir, show yourself NOW or I call the cops.”

“But I…I am right in front of you…”

You laughed.
“Yeah, right, mister ghost.” You took a deep breath. “Okay, you know what? I’m sick, and it’s kind of chilly out there, so I really, really want to go back inside. So thank you, whoever you are, for bringing me my coat back, but I have some other stuff to do. I wish you understand.”

The stranger kept stammering, not sure to understand what was happening.

“Au revoir, sir.”

You ran back to the door, making sure no one was following you. After looking one last time behind you, you locked the doors, drew the curtains and kept the phone close to you. Because we never know.
Nowadays, freaks were everywhere.