A.N. So here were are. Part three and final. It's a little rushed and the ending is slightly cliché, but overall I'm happy with it. Happy birthday to me! :)

Flames=Leo Valdez

They say we are what we are, but we don't have to be. I'm glad to hate you but I'll do it in the best way. I'll be the watcher of the eternal flame, I'll be the guard dog of all your fever dreams. I am the sand in the bottom half of the hourglass. I try to picture you without but I can't. Cause we could be immortals, just not for long.

They both had imagined this scene so many times and in so many ways that it was almost too good to be true. Or too bad, depending on your perspective.

Before Jack could fly away, Elsa calmly rose from her bed, crossing to the window and opening it. The only thing that gave away her nervousness was the slight tremble in her fingers as she unlatched the window.

"I think you should come in," she said, struggling to keep the detachment in her voice. Like the dutiful person that he was, Jack did as he was told. Some part of him was actually glad to have this excuse to talk to Elsa. It had been too long, and now here she was, in front of him.

"Sit down," Elsa said, gesturing to her desk chair as she sat on her bed, regarding him with an unfathomable gaze. She groped around in her brain for something to say. Jack made her tongue tied too easily.

"You haven't changed at all," she said finally.

Jack let out a little bark of a laugh, crossing his legs. "I don't think you'll find that that's true. I've changed in more ways than you might care to think."

"I meant physically."

Jack shrugged noncommittally. "Whatever."

He squirmed a little as Elsa studied him with the intensity of her gaze. "You're angry," she said finally.

Jack's eyes narrowed. "That does tend to happen when your girlfriend throws you out like trash without explanation."

"I didn't 'throw you out,'" she said, a frown crossing her face.

"Then what did you do?"

"It was a…mutual breakup."

Jack shook his head ever so slightly, jumping to his feet. Was she serious? "Whatever. I'm leaving."

"You don't have to leave!" The words took Jack by surprise, and as he looked at Elsa she bit her lip, embarrassed. "I mean, stay. Please. I think we need to talk about what happened."

Why had Jack ever thought that this would be a good idea was beyond him. "I don't think we do," he said, his voice leaving no room for argument.

But Elsa had never been one to give in easily. That had been one of the things that Jack had liked the most about her back when they were dating.

"I'm sorry about what I said," Elsa said, giving him a 'sit down before I make you' glare. "I was wrong. You're not a distraction, and you never were. You're Jack Frost. You're funny, and brave, and—"

"The singing of the praises, while nice, isn't needed. I have places I need to be, and I'm really not in the mood."

"Is that so?" Elsa challenged, holding up the heart charm. "Then why did you leave this outside my window?"

"It was final present," Jack said. "One last gift before I left."

"You left a long time ago. Why now? Why come back four years later?"

"Because!" Jack knew somewhere in the back of his mind that he was being too sensitive, but he was angry with himself for thinking that maybe he and Elsa still had a chance, and he was angry with himself for even wanting a second chance. "Because this isn't the first time I've come back! I've been coming back every year but this was going to be the last time!"

"Why?"

"Because I still love you!"

Complete and utter silence greeted Jack's last words.

"Because I'm still in love with you, Elsa," Jack said in a more subdued voice. "And some part of me always will be."

Elsa's eyes flared with a small spark of hope, as much as she tried to hide it. "You always—"

"I don't think you can ever really forget your first love." There. He'd said it. First love. Jack had had crushes before, but Elsa was the first person that he had ever felt anything genuine for.

"Maybe that's why I'm still in love with you," Elsa whispered, her eyes returning to her lap. She couldn't help but feel a little hopeful. If Jack still felt the same way about her as she did him, then maybe there was a chance for something, even if it was just friendship. Having Jack in her life as a friend would be better than not having him in her life at all.

Jack on the other hand was feeling dissatisfied. This wasn't the way things were supposed to do. He was finally ready to let her go, to let Elsa be who she wanted to be, but now she pulled this on him and told him that she still loved him.

An awkward silence fell over the room. Neither of them knew what to say, but there was something sitting unsaid in the air between them.

Somehow, Jack ended up sitting next to Elsa on the bed, although neither of them really knew how that had happened. They weren't touching, but electricity laced the air between them.

"A heart," Elsa said, breaking the silence as she attached the charm to her bracelet.

"A heart," Jack repeated, feeling incredibly stupid the moment the words left his mouth.

"I like it," she said finally. She lifted her head, her eyes darting to meet his. "I missed you. Letting you go was the worst mistake of my life."

"I missed you to," Jack answered, his voice sounding hoarse. He cleared his throat, shoving his hands in his pockets, an awkward habit he had picked up over the years. "But I don't think this is going to work out."

"What's not going to work out?" Elsa's voice was eerily calm, too calm.

"This," Jack waved his hands in a bad approximation of the distance between him and Elsa. "Us."

"Who said that I was looking for a relationship? What's wrong with being friends? I wouldn't jump to conclusions if I were you."

"It's not just a romantic relationship that won't work out," Jack heard himself say. He knew that he would regret what he was about to say, maybe even for another couple of centuries, but ultimately he knew that this was the best decision for him and Elsa. "I'm talking about a relationship period."

Elsa looked thrown. "Why do you say that?" The tides have turned, she thought, a sinking feeling entering her stomach. If this had been how Jack had felt the entire time, she didn't blame him for not wanting to reenter a relationship. "Even if you don't want to go back to how it used to be, I'd still like to be friends."

"I couldn't ever be 'just friends' with you," Jack said, his tone dead serious. "And it's more complicated than that."

"Enlighten me, then."

"I'm immortal," Jack deadpanned.

"That was never an issue before."

"That's because we didn't want to think about things like that. We were doing everything we could to pretend that we were perfect and that we would last forever, but there were always quirks, we were just trying to ignore them. Someday you're going to keep aging, and I'm going to stay looking like this forever. It's already started happening, but imagine when you turn thirty. I'll still look like an eighteen year old boy. You're the queen, pressure is going to be put on you to marry, and an invisible teenager isn't going to cut it."

"I don't care," Elsa said, surprisingly fiercely. "I don't care what people say."

"Our entire relationship was built on you telling me how badly you felt and me listening." Jack knew that he was skating dangerously close to revealing the truth, but if all went to plan he would never see Elsa again, so at this point it didn't really matter, did it? "It never worked the other way 'round."

Elsa was silent. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "That's something that I can change, though."

"Elsa, I'm sorry," Jack said softly, and not unkindly.

Elsa was as composed as ever. She simply nodded, forcing a smile on her face as much as she felt like her heart was breaking. "Thank you for my birthday present."

"Of course," Jack said with an equally soft smile. "You're welcome."

"I guess this is it," she said, the left side of her mouth quirking up a little higher than the right. "Thank you for everything. You helped me so much, I'm sorry that I couldn't do the same for you."

Jack stood, walking over to stand by the window for the last time. He was going to miss the view. Elsa followed suit.

"I understand," she said at last. "If you ever need help for anything, Arendelle's gates are open to you."

Jack nods, not saying anything. They both know that won't happen. He reaches up and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, pulling out her braid. Her waves cascaded around her cheeks, framing her face in just the way he liked it.

"I still love you," Elsa laughed, but her eyes had a glazed quality to them and her voice broke on the word 'love.'

"I know," Jack said, his voice just as broken as hers. "I love you too."

The final kiss was neither romantic or tragic, it was what it was, the last kiss between two first loves that would stay with both of them forever.

The last words were spoken by Jack as he took his customary place at the window, ready to fly away. He looked back at Elsa, smiling as he tried to memorize her face, the last kiss still tingling on his lips. If Jack were to live for centuries more, he knew that he would never love anyone like he did Elsa. It was true what he had said, your first love always holds a special place in your heart. You never forget your first kiss, your first heartbreak, your first whisper of I love you.

Elsa looked solidly back at him, her brilliant blue eyes resolute and regretful that she hadn't acted while she had the chance. But it was no use mourning what could've been, the past was in the past. She touched her bracelet subconsciously, feeling each charm under her fingers and remembering how they had gotten there, each story and kiss and whisper that came along with them. Elsa might be mortal, and someday she was going to die, but that didn't mean that the memory of Jack had to. She would tell her children everything about Jack, how he had ice magic too, and how he had a magical staff that worked magic. She would never forget.

Jack turned, leaping out the window as his last words drifted back on the wind.

"Happy birthday."