Yeah I'm Smiling, But On The Inside I'm Dying (Jack Frost, Rise Of The Guardians FanFic)

The Reunion ~ Part 1 ~ Not Cold Enough

*+*Omniscient's PoV*+*
The content and relaxed smile never left her face as she continued to drift in the darkness. Delilah never understood why she loved this state so much, although she welcomed the darkness and the freezing temperatures as well as the feeling of solitude. She guessed it was her only friend that she was aware of and that was with her from the beginning - other than her pillow of course.

As she blinked slowly in her sleep, the familiar black abyss surrounding her faded into a light grey. The soothing coldness grew warmer and warmer, and soon, she felt uncomfortable from the heat. It wasn't hot, or even too warm, but it wasn't cold. It wasn't her cold. Delilah'd never slept in the warmth before - she didn't have a blanket for the everlasting cool temperatures of Burgess, so it was always cold when she slept on the hard floorboards.

After some time, her body became restless and her eyes peeled open. Instead of seeing the brown mouldy colour of her floorboards, her eyes met a sea of blue material that she found comforting. As she stared at the blue fabric, she recalled the past day's events and started to panic. Her chest felt like it was tightening and squeezing her lungs while her pulse rose beyond average.

"No, no, no, no," she thought as she started hyperventilating, "none of that could've happened. I-I'm still at home, asleep - this is all a dream. Father didn't chase me and try to m-murder me, and I didn't meet Jack Frost." But then she felt something around her waist move. She looked down and saw two arms covered in the same blue fabric as in front of her, encircling her tiny waist, but what caught her eye was the colour of the hands. The owners skin was smooth and oh so pale! Then she realised, she must've been lying cuddled to someone! But who?!

Her eyes trailed up the persons arms, then their chest, until finally, she was met with a familiar face. She stared at him, memorising every feature of his head and filing it into her memory bank for safe keeping. His face was as pale as his hands but had a light dusting of baby pink on his cheeks and on his thin lips. His nose was straight and not too pointed, and his eyelids were closed over his icy blue eyes, surrounded by black lashes. But the most prominent feature about this forever-teenage boy, was his perfectly tousled hair that was as white as snow.

Yes, Delilah was being cuddled by the one and only Jack Frost, which should've made her feel somewhat special or maybe even weirded out - since she hadn't known him for more than a few minutes - but instead, she was scared. Why was he with her, and why isn't he being mean to her? Shouldn't he be as horrible towards her as the others, if not more? He caught her attempting suicide, for heaven's sake!

She gently shook her head, trying to shoo the annoying questions away, but that caused Jack to become restless. He unconsciously tightened his grip on her waist and buried his head into the crook of her neck. By now Delilah's face was as red as a ripe tomato and her heart was pumping faster than it ever had before. She never had human contact like this before, not that she could remember. All she ever got was abuse - no affection at all. So understandably, she panicked even more.

Carefully grabbing her own pillow that she had spotted under her head, and another one from beside her, she quickly and gently threw her pillow off the comfortable bed that they were lying on, and onto the floor made of ice. She swiftly lifted Jack's arm off her waist and rolled away from him, replacing her body with the other pillow. Jack's grip tightened on the pillow and he let out an uncomfortable groan. Quickly and soundlessly, Delilah moved off of the bed and slipped over to the corner of the big winter-themed room to a large pile of fresh snow. She grabbed her pillow again and snuggled into the snow, burrowing herself into the pile. Finally she was cold again, instead of the warmth in the bed, and found herself tired. So once again, she drifted off to her dreamless sleep, proud of her little escape from the unknown.

*+*+*+*

A knocking sound caused her to wake up later that morning, and peek out of her little igloo-like hiding place. She made a small eyehole in the snow where she could get a full view of the room, but no one could see her.

The room was still dark and outside the window, the sun was about to rise so the Moon was still out. Mentally saying hello to Manny - even though he couldn't hear her - she was interrupted by another knock that seemed to be coming from the door. Jack's sleeping form tossed and turned in the bed until he finally pushed himself up and looked around the room. Even from a distance, anyone could tell that he was still half-asleep and not in his right mind. He got up and sluggishly walked over to the door, and yawned before he opened it.

"It's four A.M. What's up?" he asked sleepily.

A heavy Russian accent replied, "You said you wanted to speak with me, so I brought Bunny along too."

In walked a large bulky man who was dressed in a very large red silk coat, with black fur trimming the edges. His hair was almost as white as Jacks, but it had little sliver hairs mixed with it, making him look wise rather than old. Dark grey bushy eyebrows sat above his bight blue eyes that were full of wonder and joy, but the light in them seemed tired and depressed. From her hiding spot, Delilah frowned. Such a jolly character shouldn't feel upset, she thought. Even though she didn't have a clue who this person could be, she was enticed by the grandfatherly figure who stepped further into the room.

"Yeah mate, we had nothing better to do anyway." Next the through the door was - I kid you not - a giant six foot rabbit with blue-grey fur that looked as soft as the Russian man's coat, if not softer. Strapped to it's back by a leather bound sash were two wooden boomerangs that looked like they were so sharp and aerodynamic that they could take your head off. On the outside of it's wrists were leather armbands with golden emblems on them that went well with the darker patterns on it's fur.

Delilah whimpered from her hiding spot from the scowl the rabbit had when he looked at Jack, but Bunny heard the noise and instantly his ears pricked up, twitching and turning to find where it came from. Jack was still only half awake so he didn't really notice.

"So...what did you want to talk about Jack?" The Russian man asked impatiently. After rubbing his eyes, Jack finally realised he was forgetting something - or rather, someone - , and whipped his head back around to his bed.

"Delilah, where are you?" He would mumble to himself as he looked franticly through the sheets and searched underneath the bed. He jumped back up when he couldn't find her, and ran towards his desk to check there, but, in the process of rushing to find the girl, he banged his toes on the corner of the grand bed. Groaning in agony and clutching his foot comically, he didn't realise he was falling to the ground until it was too late. A loud thud was made when he contacted with the ground, but was muffled by the laughter of the visitors.

Delilah tried her hardest not to laugh at Jack's reaction, but to no avail. A giggle quietly slipped through her faintly tinted red lips, sounding like beautiful muffled bells. The guests stopped laughing and looked towards the snow pile Delilah was in, and Jack propped himself up on his elbows, searching the pile of snow with his eyes too. Using the calm wind coming through the open window to help him up, Jack soundlessly walked over to the snow and knelt down to the small hole in the pile.

"Delilah? I know you're in there, you can come out now." He whispered to her. Not sure of what she wanted to do, Delilah stayed hidden in the snow, hugging her surprisingly dry pillow. Jack extended his hand out for her to take and waited. Glancing over to the others in the room, she whimpered again at the look the rabbit was giving Jack.

Seeing her bright purple eye look behind him through the peephole, followed by a whimper, Jack turned around and saw the two standing there awkwardly awaiting him to speak. Even though he knew his friends wouldn't hurt her, he understood that she was afraid. Of what, he didn't know, but he still respected her fear and moved towards the Russian man and the rabbit.

"Could you wait outside? Or come back later? Please?" he whispered to them as he ushered them out of the room.

When the soft thump of the door closing reached Delilah's ears, she slowly pushed her torso out of the the pile of snow and clutched at her pillow while burrowing the lower half of her face into it. Millions of questions flew around her mind, but she knew better than to start asking them at that moment. Her eyes followed Jack as he hesitantly walked over to her and sat cross-legged on the ice in front of her. Moments flew by with her watching him stare into her eyes with curiosity and worry. This confused Delilah, making her thin eyebrows furrow; she'd never had anyone worry for her before.

Without knowing what he was doing, Jack reached over and tucked a loose, damp piece of black hair behind one of her small ears, trying to change her expression . A red tint crawled up the tops of her cheeks that were just visible from the top of the pillow, and only then did he realise what he had done, causing a pale purple to dust his own cheeks. His actions were innocent; he only wanted to know what her pretty little mind was worrying about.

"I bet I just made everything awkward," he thought as he looked down, trying to cover the purple blush that adorned his cheeks and was deepening by the second, "but it was only a little bit of hair right? It couldn't have been that big of a deal. Right?"

But as those thoughts left his mind, a new one took their place, except this one was a moving picture, of the previous day. It was at his lake - his home - and he was sitting on the freshly fallen snow, near a small boulder looking over the frozen body of water. Perched on top of the rock was a petite girl wearing black clothing with black spiked hair. Delilah. Her stunning purple eyes were glazed and looking off into the distance as she spoke her troubles for the first time, to the earth surrounding her; not aware of the winter spirit's presence. But what was most pronounced in this memory, was a particular part of her speech.

"..all I want is a hug," she spoke with cracks in her sweet voice, "I want someone to tell me it's ok, that it'll be alright. I want someone to stroke my hair as I fall asleep, ask me how my day was, smile at me. I just want to be loved..."

So when the flashback he had experienced ceased, he looked back up at the present Delilah and searched her eyes for a clue to what she wanted - what she needed. Confusion was masking the pain in her eyes, but it was still evident. Pain and hurt...and fear.

"She shouldn't be afraid. I would never hurt her, and I'd never let anyone else her her. Not anymore; not after what she's been through." He swore, before remembering what she had said in the memory.

"...all I want is a hug...I want someone to tell me it's ok, that it'll be alright...I want someone to stroke my hair as I fall asleep...smile at me...I just want to be loved..."

A second later, Jack quickly reached out to her and pulled Delilah to him, in a comforting hug. He moved her so she was snuggled into his chest and her head was in the crook of his neck. Enveloping her in his arms, he heard quiet sobs spill from her lips.

"It's ok; everything's alright," he murmured into her ear as he softly stroked her hair, "You're safe now, with me. I won't let you get hurt anymore, Delilah. I swear on my cold, cracked heart; there'll be no more pain."

Her sobs grew as she pushed her pillow aside and latched onto his hoodie. No more pain. It sounded so extraordinarily unrealistic.

"Maybe," she thought, "just maybe, I could be happy. I could learn, live, and love. I could be better." But one thing was bothering her. Why him; why was he being so nice?