Chapter Text
“You do realize that this is one of the dumbest ideas you’ve ever come up with right?”
Ignoring the critic following him up the stairs, he shrugged off his jacket and tossed it over his shoulder into her face, grinning to himself at the startled noise it pulled from his best friend.
“Matt always locks the roof door, remember?” the blonde behind him pointed out as he reached said problem, tugging uselessly on the handle.
“Matt also always forgets his keys in his apartment door,” he argued.
“Oh my god, Jackson! You stole his keys?”
“What? No! Pay attention, Elle,” he scolded, “I was just pointing it out.”
When his friend just raised her eyebrows at him in disbelief, Jackson sighed and stepped to the side so she could see, brandishing his empty hands about dramatically. As Elle’s expression turned dangerous, he turned and sharply tapped the keyhole twice, concentrating and watching as crystal-like ice spread from where he’d touched the metal door.
“Jackson,” Elle said warningly.
“It’ll be fine,” he dismissed, latching onto the door handle and bracing himself. Throwing his shoulder against the door and stumbling forward when it flew open with a loud crack, Jackson pretended not to notice the way he’d outright shattered the lock as he swung the door shut behind her.
“If Matt asks me if I know why the door is broken, then I’m telling him the truth,” Elle threatened with narrowed eyes.
“What?” Jackson asked, spreading his arms wide as he backed towards the edge of the roof. “You’re going to tell him that I used my magical ice powers to freeze and shatter the deadbolt when we came up here to see if I can fly?”
“Oh for the love of- you can’t fly Jackson!” Elle exclaimed, hands rising to tug at her hair in frustration. “You’ve got these freaky ice powers, not the ability to fly of all things! You don’t even have any proof!”
“That’s what you said about my ‘freaky ice powers’,” he reminded her, only a little offended by her use of the word ‘freak’.
“Yeah,” she agreed simply, “And then you proved that you really had them and that you weren’t going crazy.”
He nodded, waving a hand at the roof around them. “Hence why we’re up here.”
“We’re up here because you think it’s a good idea to jump off a building!” Elle yelled. “This isn’t proving anything, this is suicide! At least try to fly in our apartment or something, just to prove you can do it without having to jump ten stories to the ground.”
Glancing over the edge of the building and down those ten floors, Jackson backed away from the ledge as his stomach twisted painfully.
“At least jump from a one story building,” she added, “Before your acrophobia makes you pass out and fall.”
“I bet you feel really smart using a big word like that,” Jackson teased immediately, “And I’m not afraid of heights, I just don’t like them.”
“Uh huh.”
Turning his back on Elle and staring out across the city, Jackson didn’t react as his friend moved up to join him. What could he say to convince her without sounding insane? Elle had been halfway through searching the internet for a therapist when he’d first told her about what he could do, it had taken him panicking and freezing her glass of wine to convince her that he hadn’t lost it. The last thing he wanted to do right now was make her start second-guessing him by telling her the truth.
‘Actually Elle, I had a dream where I was flying around some giant palace made of ice that was in the middle of a frozen ocean. I’m pretty sure this means I can fly because these dreams of mine haven’t led me wrong so far.’
Yeah right, she’d be dialing a loony bin for him before he’d even finished speaking.
His first instinct was to jump and prove her wrong, but he had always been rather... put off... by heights, and by falling from heights. He couldn’t help but fear that the dreams were just that, that they were his brain coming up with something related to his ice powers just for the sake of it.
“Hey look!” Elle blurted, pointing out at something. “The cranes are gone from the library.”
Scanning the skyline for the expected crane, Jackson grunted when he realized it was gone. “I wonder how long that’s been missing for,” he mumbled, “It was there last week when I visited.”
“You visited the library last week?” she questioned, a chilling wind ruffling through his hair.
Crap.
“Yeah I needed to issue a book out for work,” he lied quickly, pretending not to notice the way his friend’s eyes narrowed at him. “One of those ‘for dummies’ books,” Jackson added, “Another new guy and not enough qualified trainers. The book is his homework or something.”
“Speaking of work, expect a phone call from my boss sometime next week,” Elle said with a sigh. “She’s given up on our usual guy, so I mentioned you’re an electrician. She said she’d give you a go.”
“Lovely. Like I don’t have a full schedule already,” he deadpanned, “If it’s sent my way I’ll give it a go, you might just need to replace it though.”
“Good luck explaining that to her,” the blonde said with a snort. “It’ll be like talking to a- JACK!”
“Like talking to a Jack?” he echoed, turning to smirk at Elle before freezing as several things became obvious all at once.
His friend wasn’t staring at his face, she was staring at his feet, which were currently standing on the roof’s ledge, which in turn explained why he was looking down at her instead of up.
“When did I get up here?” he breathed out, shakily lowering himself down to hold onto the ledge, flinching as a strong breeze snapped at his loose shirt. “I don’t remember climbing up here,” he mumbled, clamping his eyes shut as his vision swam at the steep drop beside him.
“Jackson!” Elle whimpered as he almost lost his balance, his breath coming out slowly as he stiffened at the sight of ice spreading out from his hands. “Slowly,” she ordered, edging forward to stretch out her hand, reaching for him. “Careful. Careful!”
It seemed that the wind hadn’t gotten that memo however, as an unnervingly strong gust seemed to appear out of nowhere to unbalance him, Elle’s cry of shock sounding at the same time as a car horn below. His friend’s hand hitting his shoulder as his shoe slid out from under him on a thin sheet of ice, his breath leaving his lungs as he hit the ledge chest-first before bouncing to the side and off the building.
Now that he thinks about it, Elle was right. He should have tried to learn how to fly in their shared apartment before going anywhere near a ten story drop. It wasn’t like his dreams – real or not – involved him being taught how to fly, in them he just was.
As what he was sure was certain death approached, his body seemed to spasm. His head tucking itself against his chest as his lower body twisted, Jackson was hitting the ground feet first with a muffled yelp, his knees giving way beneath him as he fell forward. Whimpering as the ground shock shot up his legs like lightning, the only thing he could do was roll onto his side and curl up in pain. Breathing quickly to try get past it, Jackson rubbed and massaged at his knees, hoping to try soothe away some of the burning sensation as the muscles in his legs screamed.
When the numb yet intense feeling caused by the ground shock faded away, he pulled his body up into a sitting position and grimaced as his knees throbbed warningly. After a pause to let his body adjust, Jackson pushed himself to his feet and almost went tumbling over again, his legs violently protesting the movement as he staggered over to the stairs of his building and collapsed.
He’d landed on his feet, he hadn’t flown, but he’d landed on his feet. Like a cat or something. It wasn’t flight, but it was definitely something, something that only proved to him that he was more of a freak than he had originally thought he was. Normal people didn’t and couldn’t do the things he could do after all, so what exactly did that make him?
Jumping as the door behind him slammed open, Jackson just sent Elle a tired smile over his shoulder as she stared at him in dumb shock. “I have ground shock,” he confessed breathlessly as his friend descended the stairs to drop down beside him, “I fell from the roof of a ten story building and I landed on my feet, with only the worst case of ground shock in history to show for it.”
“I thought you were going to die,” Elle whispered weakly, slumping against his side without another word.
“If it makes you feel better, you were right about this being the dumbest idea I’ve ever had,” he offered, turning his head away as to not see the tears she was wiping from her face. “And if it makes you feel even better, I’m never going to be able to have kids and pass on my sheer stupidity to future generations.”
Elle stared at him in confusion for a moment before her face twisted in pity. “Ground shock?” she asked.
“Ground shock,” he agreed with a wince.
“How about we go inside and get you some ice?” Elle suggested softly, standing and helping him to his feet, not complaining as his trembling legs forced him to learn on her for support. “And booze,” she added absently, “For me. A lot of it.”
When they were both safely ensconced in their apartment, both of them sitting on opposite sides of the room staring at the liberal helpings of wine in their glasses, neither of them felt brave enough to breach the silence and address the elephant in the room.
“Elle?”
“Jackson,” his friend countered, refusing to look at him.
What did he say? What could he say?
“Never mind,” he dismissed, “It doesn’t matter.”
As his friend hummed to herself thoughtfully, staring out the loft windows like they held the answers to everything, Jackson just sighed and tipped back the rest of his drink and set the glass down with a noisy clink. Struggling out of the armchair and leaving the frozen peas on the cushion, he waved Elle back down and gestured to the bathroom, limping over to it as quickly as he could while maintaining what little remained of his dignity.
It was only when the door was locked behind him that he allowed himself to react, collapsing against the sink and fighting to control his panic. Glancing up at the mirror in front of him, Jackson stared at his reflection, not entirely sure he recognized the person looking back at him. Four months ago he would have just winked at himself and adjusted his hair, but then four months ago he hadn’t been looking into a mirror that was freezing over as his breath hit it.
“What’s wrong with me?”