Crossover fic (Jack x Elsa). What if Jack hasn't been completely alone in the 300 or so years since the Moon granted him his powers? 11 years after Jack receives his Guardianship, he finds himself telling Jamie about the true tale of the Snow Queen, and of their love story that has been lost to time and much more fantastical legends. Romance, angst, adventure.

6/6/14: Complete edit of story complete - Arialene

Jamie Bennett hurried through the parking lot of his apartment complex towards the sanctuary of the warm complex of the entryway, turning up the collar of his warm wool coat against the cold snowy wind.

He could imagine the weather reports on the TV channels protesting that the storm didn't look nearly as bad as it had turned out to be in the previous days, but regardless his classes had been cancelled already for tomorrow and he was looking forward to a three-day weekend where he didn't have to work.

Nineteen years old now, he was working decent hours at a local pizza place that the owner was nice enough to give the college kids a weekend off a month to go home, which worked out great because Jamie planned on using this one, now that he was snowed in, to work on a paper.

His mobile phone rang as soon as he pulled the door shut behind him, blocking out the cold wind.

"Hi mom," he said, stamping his boots on the rug a few times to get the snow and slush off of them.

"Jamie! I've been trying to call you! Are you alright?" the worried voice demanded from the other side.

He winced; he hated scaring his mom.

"Just fine mom! I just got to the apartment. I was just concentrating on driving and must not have heard the phone. It's kinda rough out there, wanted to make sure I got home safe and sound." He made sure that he sounded cheery, not wanting to scare her; the roads were abysmal to drive on since the road crews hadn't been prepared for this rough winter weather.

He started down the hall towards the stairwell to go up to his apartment, waving at the middle-aged woman he passed that he guessed was going to check her mail. His mother babbled on about Sophie's latest high school whatevers, updates about his grandparents and other family members other town gossip. He listened patiently, adding in encouraging words and noncommittal agreements as he trudged up the four flights of stairs, pulling off gloves and scarf and fishing out his key.

"I'm not going to be able to make it back tonight, you know that right? The weather is just… horrible. I guess good ol' Jack has been at it again," he made sure to make the last part sound jokingly.

His mother sighed. "I know, and I was so looking forward to seeing you. You'll come home next month though, right?"

She sounded so hopeful, almost desperate on the last question.

"Of course mom, I was looking forward to coming home too. But, I have some papers I need to write, and I'll get ahead on some things this weekend too. I love you mom."

"I love you too honey," she said. "Sophie's home, I need to go check on her. I'll call you soon!"

He chuckled and hung up the phone, reaching his apartment door and opening it up. He groaned as an icy blast of air hit him in the face.

"Can you at least close the window when you let yourself in, please? Not all of us are immune to the cold," Jamie grumbled, as he pulled back on his gloves and re-buttoned up his coat. He didn't seem at all surprised or put off by the cold apartment or open window.

Blue sparkles swirled around the room ahead of him, pushing the window closed and then flipping the switch to the gas fireplace, they vanished as the red flames sprang up warmly to help heat the frozen room.

Jamie pulled his backpack off his shoulders and tossed it into the chair in front of the fire, looking around for his mischievous roommate. He smirked at the tell-tale laughter that betrayed Jack's hiding spot.

"You know, you can't ALWAYS just make a snow day when you don't want me to go away for the weekend. Not that I don't always appreciate it, but it might get suspicious when it's always on my weekends off," Jamie said, rubbing his arms to warm up.

"Oh come on, you can't honestly tell me that you wanted to go back down south to go see Sophie's "High School Fashion Show" when you could stay here with me?" Jack said, coming into view, floating on that familiar staff of his.

Jamie had to laugh at that. "Okay, okay, it was probably going to be pretty terrible and you likely saved me from that. But mom WAS looking forward to seeing me. I really have to go next month."

Jack held up his hands in defeat. "Fine, fine, but don't look to me if you need rescuing. What's for dinner?"

Though Jack didn't ever need to eat, Jamie had found out that Jack LOVED trying all the various new flavors that weren't available in the 1700s when he was a kid; especially anything with an exotic flair.

Jamie pulled off his gloves again, unbuttoned his coat and removed it.

"How about curry? I can tell you about this new assignment I have from Dr. Bujak. I think you'll like it."

Jack floated behind Jamie into the small kitchen area. The apartment was tiny, the 1 bedroom apartment wouldn't be big enough for the both of them if Jack wasn't gone a large amount of the time being a winter guardian. While Jamie did tease him, he loved having him around; it got lonely having the whole place to himself.

Jack snorted. "Is it about me again? You know there is only SO much I can make up about myself," he gloated.

Jamie smiled, pulling out a large pot from a lower cabinet and setting it on the stove. He turned and started pulling out other items to start filling up the pot with the fragrant Indian dish.

"No, actually, we were told in very explicit terms that we could not write about anyone or anything that we had written about earlier in this semester. And, this counts as like, a third of my grade so I have to choose something that seems interesting. I mean, its mythology, so it fairly open book there," Jamie said, pulling bags of vegetables and a package of meat from the freezer.

Jack scowled. "I wish you'd tell this professor's first name so I could bury their house in ice, burst a pipe or something. Mythology indeed. I'm quite real thank you."

Jamie chuckled. "Which is exactly why I don't tell you," he paused.

"Anyways, so I went to the library to do a little research. I figured a lot of people are going to do a lot of the really common ones so I wanted to try and find a more obscure one and try and find one that also fits the Jack Frost genre as well. And I found one! The Snow Queen, or the Ice Queen. I found it in both contexts but it seems to refer to the same person. Looks like she started as a Norwegian myth or fairy tale, and it sounds like an interesting story. I just need to find out more information."

He looks up at Jack with a grin on his face. "You want this spicy?" Jamie paused when he saw the forlorn look on Jack's face, like an old wound had been reopened for the first time in many, many years.

"Hey, Jack, you okay?"

Jack shook himself a little and looked up at Jamie, smiling sadly. "Hmm? Yeah, yeah I'm okay. The Snow Queen eh? She's, she was something."

Jamie furrowed his brow, still looking at Jack.

"You knew her, didn't you? She was real, like you," his eyes widened at the realization of it.

Jack was silent for a few long moments before he sighed deeply and nodded.

"Yeah, I knew her. And yes she was quite real," he sat his staff aside and fumbled with one of his pockets for a moment, pulling out a fold of black leather out, like a wallet, and handed it to Jamie.

"Elsa. Her name was Elsa." Jack leaned against the doorframe, looking up at the ceiling with a faraway expression on his face.

Jamie carefully opened the folded leather, his eyes widened at the small oil painting on one side, covered in a thin, protective sheet of ice, of a beautiful woman. She had white-blonde hair that was pulled to one shoulder and braided. And she had piercing blue eyes that stared back at him.

His strength was not in art, but he knew that a small portrait like this was rare to have. He examined the portrait further, halting when he noticed that the woman's shoulders were bare; this was not an ordinary miniature.

"Jack," he said haltingly, looking up at Jack. "This, this is a lover's portrait."

Jack turned his head towards Jamie, smiling weakly. "Yes, yes it is."

Jamie stared at Jack for a long moment, looked down at the portrait at the woman and then back up at Jack. "Tell me."

Jack blinked. "What?"

"Tell me about her. All of it."

Jack stared at him for a moment, starting to shake his head. "Jamie, I don't…"

"Jack, she was obviously very important to you if you have kept her portrait with you for over 200 years now. I want to know the story."

Jack turned his head back away, looking up to stare at the water-stained ceiling as long dead memories resurfaced, memories he'd fought long and hard to forget. There was only one other person that knew about Elsa, and he couldn't speak. He'd never told the Guardians about her, not even spoken her name aloud in nearly two centuries but, as the fates would have it, she would not be ignored.

He turned his head back towards Jamie. Jamie, who was still watching him patiently and holding that beloved portrait of Elsa. He smiled slightly remembering the day he begged her to let him paint her; he knew how to create more than bunnies on windowpanes.

He sighed.

"You really want to know about her? About us?" Jack asked, an old pain in his usually cheerful eyes.