Like A Dream

After preparing for the day, Ebony hurried to the back of the house to retrieve her lace up boots. Jack simply followed her around everywhere both anxious to finally enter the snow realm and wishing to make her uncomfortable, with him constantly behind her pointing out insignificant things.

"Those are some nice shoes," he said, bending down so their faces were only an inch apart. Ebony ignored him continuing to work the shoelaces. "Even when I was human I don't think I ever wore shoes." His tone made it seem as if they were just having a friendly conversation though she knew what he was doing.

The girl clenched her jaw before looking up to scold him. Her retort was brought to a standstill and her hands froze mid-air, as she just realized how disturbingly near Jack was. His big blue eyes were intensely gazing at her face as if scrutinizing each inch of her complexion.

"Mh," she audibly cleared her throat. "Wha-what...is there something on my face?" She was counting on this question to help her smoothly ease out of this awkward situation.

Jack continued to gaze intently, without fail, for a few more seconds before a wide, knowing grin broke out of his serious demeanour. He chuckled, clueless about how hard the girl's heart was currently pounding from his difficult closeness. "No there isn't," he finally announced.

Shaking her head, Ebony shoved the trickster up and away from her face. "You're a massive jerk, y'know that?" She was simply glad that her face wasn't coloured with a pink shade otherwise, it could've been much worse.

Light brown eyebrows poked up. "Well...yeah I've been told several times." He used his wooden staff to help himself up from the kneeling position, dusting off his tattered trousers. Even though most of the time he was cheeky, he was still a gentleman at heart, and so he proceeded to offer Ebony a hand up. "Mostly by you. Actually," he paused for melodramatic effect, "always by you."

Even more agitated, she slapped away his outstretched hand and stood up on her own accord. Of course, she wasn't really mad at him for saying those things; she was just greatly bothered by his reaction to the post awkward happening.

While she attempted to calm down her erratic heartbeats and keep her hormones intact as she forced herself not to let her eyes travel to his lips, Jack obviously wasn't unnerved about anything as he leaned even further down.

Ebony's own imagination-created lifesaver rippled across her mind, exterminating the images. With the cerulean orbs still burning through her soul, she was surprised that she had managed to tug Jack towards the front of the house before locking the door.

"A bit frustrated, aren't we?" he teased, a pronounced smirk settling upon his lips. The smile wavered as he realized Ebony wasn't in the mood for jokes. "Did I do something wrong?"

She looked hopelessly at him, as if she wanted to beg him for the answers. Sinking her front teeth down on her bottom lip, she pondered about telling him. However, doing that never presented positive conclusions so she decided to shake his worry off. "Don't worry; I'm just mad that I still have school." Adding to that, she didn't want to dwell any more on it, as she felt uneasy just standing next to him. To her best friend.

Jack seemed to accept her reasonable excuse, but inside he was still curious. She had plenty of time to be strained about missing out on a snow day so why would she be distressed about that now? He had no doubt that it was he to blame and he felt light guilt crawl around within him. Ebony looked so bothered that he didn't force the subject.

The teenage pair fiddled around for a few moments, allowing the scene to pass by and leave them. Jack pretended to be occupied, as he dutifully examined his frost covered wooden staff. He waited until she was finally ready to walk out into the snow blanketed ground, still upset about making her feel annoyed.

Tired of the tense atmosphere that she knew she'd caused, Ebony gathered her self-confidence and reached out to grab the boy's free hand. He sighed in relief, starting to slip his fingers in between hers. This gesture meant that everything was alright; well for now it was. But he didn't let that bother him.

She travelled down the steps of the front porch quickly pulling Jack behind her. As if it was a signature sign that Jack Frost had indeed arrived, a light gust of wind danced along the two friends, lingering around them before moving on. Ebony laughed at the winter wind. Chills caught up with her and she grabbed one end of her scarf, throwing it around her neck.

"I'm sorry," Jack said skipping forward to be beside her.

With one quirked eyebrow, she turned to face him. "What could you possibly be apologizing for?" She lightly giggled, fondly nudging him by the shoulder.

As he contemplated on whether to begin something that may  start a conflict, Ebony patiently waited, swaying their linked hands back and forth. She had forgotten the hard feelings for Jack though the guilt had stopped definitely settled, bent on destroying his insides. Exaggerated, but nonetheless true.

"Come on Frost," she urged, nudging their shoulders once more. "Lost for words for once? What's the matter?" Ebony's second of happiness - since she was irritated by him - instantly swept away and her eyebrows furrowed together. "Jack?"

The winter spirit glared at the ground. His teeth nibbling gently on his bottom lip, forehead crinkled with anxiety, hands playing with his best friend's fingers, he swallowed down any self pride. He usually wasn't used to situations like this, even with Ebony. "Um...I'm sorry."

She chuckled awkwardly. "You already said that!" Her breath caught midway her throat as their eyes met; his cerulean orbs shaded with hesitance. Before the pair were able to continue a shout disrupted their conversation.

"Ebony!"

Jack flinched at the sudden shout and twisted around ready to punch the newcomer with a tough ball of snow. It was a boy and a boy he knew very well. "Adrian?" he whispered. Of course, Adrian couldn't hear him as he had stopped believing in Jack Frost many years ago.

"Hey Ebony, you walking today?" he exclaimed with a wide grin on her face. She began advancing towards the boy.

The winter spirit had conjured up an image of what the boy wanted the answer to be. He had been around for over three hundred years and as a boy stuck in his seventeen-year-old body, he knew the intentions of Adrian.

As if it would've worked on a non-believer, he glowered icily at the friend of Ebony's warning him to be careful with her. Adrian had disrupted the intimate moment that was so perfectly set up - he might've had the chance to express his emotions - and Jack wasn't about to let him escape so easily.

Watching the classmates trudge down the walkway, he leaned against the curled end of his staff. “Wanna come to the movies this Saturday?” Adrian asked, rather loudly as if he knew Jack was listening. That did it. He raised one hand creating his own special snowball before leaping into the air. He flew by Adrian's side and dropped the icy ball on the boy's head. As he was distracted for a few seconds, Jack was quick to tap the end of his staff on the path resulting in Adrian to slip on the bit of slick ice.

Jack watched in amusement from a tree branch while Ebony stifled her laughter as she attempted to help the poor boy up. He chuckled gaining the girl's attention. "Welcome Ebony," he said sending her a gentleman like bow before receiving back an unexpected glare.