A/N: The epilogue. So uh...has it really been two years since I promised I would write this? First off-SO SORRY. I realize this is late in coming. I have no excuses, except that life got in the way.

On a different note, the end of this chapter is decidedly more PG-13 than previous chapters, but I don't have experience writing scenes like this, so it's pretty clumsy. Just a warning. Would appreciate feedback in this area if you have the time.

Regardless of clumsy writing, thank you all so much for following this story and for your feedback! I'd love to hear your concluding thoughts. Feel free to rant or rave. Best, BlueSuedeShoes23

Epilogue

Six months. A lot can happen in six months. Jack leaned his arms against the cold, intricate banister of Elsa's ice castle balcony, gazing at the city of Arendelle in the far distance. Elsa was there in that far-off castle now, recovering from a bad cold. The products of her cold—small, living snow-babies that formed every time she sneezed—had made her old ice castle their home. They conglomerated about Jack's feet, as if sensing similarities between him and their snow queen mother. Jack sighed. If he wasn't the embodiment of winter, he could be caring for Elsa in her time of sickness. As it was, he was exactly the opposite of what she needed: warmth, comfort, and rest. With a disgruntled huff, he struck at a snow-baby pawing at his ankle with his staff. It flew through the balcony's open doors with a squeal of delight. Witnessing the swift dismissal of their fallen brother, the remaining snow babies hopped up and down excitedly with happy cries.

"Absolutely not," replied Jack, but the cries merely tumbled into themselves—the 200-plus snow-babies began throwing each other throughout the crystallized castle like jointed snowballs. Soon a chorus of delighted squeals and pats of snow on ice rang throughout the crystallized castle. Under normal circumstances, Jack would have been the happy leader of this unique snow day. But today was different. Today, Elsa was sick, and he was more useless than usual.

Still leaning against the balcony's banister, Jack gazed at the snow flurry of chaos erupting inside the castle. Unlike his first frantic visit—his stomach still clenched at the awful memory of Elsa lying motionless on the ice floor—the ice castle's chandelier was different. The original had crashed in the battle with Pitch, and Elsa had created this new one—bigger and better than the last. Jack suddenly wished that Pitch were here now so he could dump this new, heavier chandelier on him also. After six months of prowling the globe for him, Pitch Black was nowhere to be found. Perhaps it was better that way. Jack would not be taken by surprise again. He would be ready, whatever form the Nightmare King chose to take.

But six months had brought about other changes. Most importantly, the people of Arendelle had accepted Elsa—powers and all—as their queen. Since the Arendellians were a superstitious bunch, this process wasn't easy. Without the help of the leader of the butchers' guild, Elsa might not have convinced Arendelle to trust her again. But the lead butcher—conscious of his traitorous position and perhaps truly remorseful for his actions after discovering Pitch's betrayal against him—rallied together many of the guilds in support of Elsa and her powers. Butchers, bakers, blacksmiths, and leather-makers alike began to speak out against superstition and united under their queen's banner, as did their families. Soon most of Arendelle took their snow queen's power in stride.

The Arendellians' knowledge expanded in other ways as well. Following Elsa's retrieval of her powers from Pitch, she launched an educational program throughout Arendelle to inform her people about the Guardians and about what she knew about her own abilities. Children readily believed—Jack couldn't fly through the main drag of Arendelle without being greeted by a line of child-sized high-fives—but the majority of adults remained obstinate and unseeing. Yet a few of them—Elsa's sister Anna included—did believe, and for Jack this was more than enough. In time, perhaps the people of Arendelle would learn of the technological world outside of the islands of Arendelle, Berk, Corona, DunBroch and the others. For now, magic was best in doses.

Inside, the volley of rocketing snow babies had slowed to a halt. They lay scattered on the ice floor of their home, huffing and puffing, thoroughly and happily exhausted. It would not be long before Jack would have to go off again on Guardian-duty, spreading this same kind of joy throughout the world. He couldn't afford to stay in Arendelle for more than a few days at a time. Yet a certain snow queen always brought him back.

Yes, a lot could happen in six months.

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Jack stuck around Arendelle for another day before deciding he better get going. No matter how much he disliked it, he would have to wait another week to see the queen. The world needed its Guardian of Fun. With keen displeasure, he made his final rounds of the city. The children were in school, and the few Arendellians who walked the main road could not see him, depressing him further.

As Jack flew past Arendelle's official and significantly less-icy castle hoping to catch a passing glimpse of the queen, he saw her sister. Anna flagged him down as he flew past her room. "Jack!" He halted, alighting on her window ledge.

"Hey Anna, how's it going? How's Elsa?"

"Better!" said Anna cheerfully. "Much better. She'd like to see you before you head off." Jack felt himself flush.

"Er, right, sure."

Anna smiled at him. "Her door's open, Romeo."

"What about you?" said Jack. His blush had crept down to his neck as he tried and failed not to read into the implications of Anna's words.

"I'm meeting Kristoff. After three months, he finally wants me to meet the family." She laughed.

"Oh," said Jack. "That should be interesting."

"Why?" said Anna.

Because they're singing rocks, thought Jack, but he said, "Oh, nothing." He made his way through Anna's bedroom door and down the hall before realizing he didn't know how to get to Elsa's room from inside—he had always come to her window. Sheepishly, he turned back and asked Anna where her sister's room was. She laughed again, pointing to a door just down the grand, tapestried hallway. With another blush creeping down his neck, Jack flew down to Elsa's door and knocked.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Oh. Jack. It's nice to see you," said Elsa, her voice rising a pitch at the name. Her heart had skipped a beat as Jack's lean frame stepped into her room, as her heart often did over the course of these past months. His white hair, swept back from his flight, revealed his forehead. It quickly became a point of fascination for her, but she forced herself to look him in the eye. "I wasn't expecting you. You usually don't knock from there." Jack meandered to her bedside, plopping down near her feet, his crook resting easily across his knees. He smirked.

"How you feelin, queeny? No more snow-babies, I hope?" Elsa smiled, a soft, weak laugh escaping her lips. She was certainly feeling better, but the ache of an illness overcome still settled in her bones. Jack eyed her warily, concern etched in every handsome feature of his face.

"I'm well," she said, reddening at his inspection of her. Suddenly she wished she were wearing makeup and a dress, not this nightgown. She looked at her hands in her lap, studied her fingernails. She needed to say it—it would eat at her if she didn't. "I was…surprised to hear you were in Arendelle all this time. I-I thought you would visit like the others. I was…waiting." At her feet, Jack went very still. Elsa remembered herself. "Of course it wasn't as if I was expecting—what I mean is, I understand. You can't teach me when I'm ill." Not strictly true—most of their lessons post-Pitch had dissolved into talking and laughing at the windowsill. Secretly, they both knew Elsa no longer needed to be taught at all. She was wringing her hands now. "Sorry, I answered my own question. Please forget I said anything, Jack. Haha." There was a long, painful pause during which Elsa refused to look up. She twisted her fingers together again. Oh, she was an idiot.

Two large, white hands enveloped her own, grasped at her wrists. "Elsa," said Jack, his cold breath numbing the tip of her nose. As if in response, her heart beat like drum, like it did so often during their chat-filled lessons ever since Pitch's escape. Jack was very close. Elsa's heart fairly beat in her ears—she strained to hear his voice. "Look at me," said Jack. Without knowing why, she obeyed, and as she did, Jack brought her hands near his face. He looked as stricken as she'd ever seen him. He exhaled. "I was thinking of you all week." He pressed her hands on either side of his smooth, white jaw. When he spoke, she felt the corners of his cool lips move against her wrists. Elsa felt herself redden with each beat of her walloping heart.

"Y-you were?" she whispered, barely hearing her own voice. Jack pressed the inside of her wrist against the side of his nose.

"Hmm," he intoned, inhaling. "Yeah. For one, I was thinking of your smell. You smell amazing." Without a hint of shame, he inhaled again, promptly following it with a quick kiss against the soft inner skin of her wrist. For one of the first times in her life, the queen of Arendelle was at a loss for words.

"Um, well, ah, certainly—"

Jack seemed to suppress a grin, and continued: "For two, I thought of your soft touch…" Slowly, Jack's cool palms descended down Elsa's forearms until they were grasping her upper biceps, bringing her in closer. Elsa felt herself gasp, and this time, Jack didn't try to conceal his smile from her. With a deliberate movement, his head descended near her neck, leaving a long, cold trail of his breath from the bottom of her ear to where her neck met her shoulder. "Three," he murmured. "Your collarbone…" Here, too, Jack pressed another kiss—but this one lingered, meandering its way leisurely, a cold kiss at a time, to the front of her neck.

"J-Jack," gasped Elsa. She was certain her heart would explode from her chest any moment, if the heat in her face didn't melt her features off first. She felt his lips smile against the hollow of her throat. He smelled of pine-needles. Was this truly happening?

"What was that, queeny?" He moved. His cold breath was blowing softly against her jaw now, his nose tucked in the hollow behind her ear. "Still not convinced?"

"I-I-I'm convinced," squeaked Elsa, a bit dizzy. She knew her newfound wooziness was not a repercussion of this week's past illness. Jack's lips traced down her jaw to her delicate chin, then back again.

"Hmm," said Jack, thoroughly ignoring her. He performed the motion again, and Elsa gave a slight, pleasurable whimper. His chest was pressing Elsa against her headboard now, his arms on either side, trapping her between them. Elsa couldn't say she wanted to escape. "Speaking of adorable noises," he said. "Four." His lips found the side of her forehead. "I thought of the way you snort when you laugh." At this, he gave a short, happy chuckle himself, and then Elsa felt his own heart beating, quite rapidly, through his blue hoodie against her. He's also nervous. His lower lip brushed along the shapeliness of her eyebrow, pausing at the bridge of her nose. Elsa's own lips quivered, but at the feeling of Jack's speedy heartbeat, she felt emboldened. Gently, she pushed him away so he was looking at her. Pointing a finger to her lips, she said,

"Five." Jack, his arms still resting above her on the headboard, froze like a reindeer in headlights. As his blue eyes looked at her, his face was swiftly overcome in a sweeping blush. Had he really thought he could do all that and not kiss her properly?

"I, um, was, um—"

Elsa's hands were in Jack's soft white hair before she knew it, urging him closer towards her. "Are you still not convinced?" she said, voice low. She kissed the tip of his nose. Jack's flush-though it seemed impossible-deepened, further encouraging Elsa's boldness. She pressed her lips softly at one corner of his mouth, then the other. "Are you convinced?" murmured Elsa. With a rush, Jack exhaled, and said,

"Moon, yes." And as their lips met, that familiar, rushing cold feeling—the kind they experienced upon holding hands at their first meeting—exploded between the two of them, and they both knew simultaneously they would be together until the Moon itself tumbled from the sky.

THE END