Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover

Chapter 5 - Found

jimmy's pov:

The mountain range was, in fact, quite far away.

It took him a full day to reach the bottom of the mountains, andq he'd ended up having to stay at a B&B owned by people who looked pretty sketchy (he could have sworn he'd brought more money in his wallet). Luckily, they gave him some complimentary mountain climbing equipment— maybe to make up for the theft— and he was on his way.

The start of the climb wasn't too bad. It wasn't so much a climb, more like he was hiking in a hilly area. However, it got difficult quickly. Jimmy wished he had Scott's control over ice and snow— it'd be much faster to climb.

He was grateful for the equipment, as otherwise he'd have been stuck at the bottom; the occasional sheer cliffs of the mountain were impossible to scale without ice picks.

As Jimmy reached the top, he found occasional spikes of ice peeking out from the snow, growing larger and larger as he traveled upwards. He hoped they were Scott's; it would mean he was getting closer to him.

He scanned the area, looking for anything that might be Scott's.

"Come on, come on." Jimmy muttered to himself. "I didn't just scale a mountain for nothing."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something flash. He turned and saw a massive ice spike, sparkling in the midday sun. If that wasn't a sign that Scott was here, he didn't know what was.

He jogged over to it, and found that it wasn't an ice spike, but a castle shooting up into the sky. It had to be Scott's.

"Scott?" Jimmy called. "You here?"

When he got no response, he walked over to the door of the castle. There was no doorbell, so he knocked. The door swung open, and Jimmy walked in.

The inside was massive, and beautifully decorated, but Jimmy didn't have time to focus on that. He moved towards the stairs after seeing that Scott wasn't on the ground floor.

"Scott?" He shouted. "Scott, it's Jimmy!"

Scott didn't answer, but Jimmy saw something move from behind a wall of ice upstairs.

"Scott, it's okay." He called, beginning to walk up the stairs. "You don't need to worry."

"Please, just go back to Auradon." Scott's voice said.

Jimmy started going faster. "I want you to come with me."

He reached the top and walked into a long corridor with Scott standing at the end. Jimmy grinned and began to speed up.

"I can't." Scott turned to him. He looked different— his clothes were different to his usual ones: a snow jacket and trousers in a periwinkle blue, his boots a dark brown. His hair looked longer, though he'd only been gone for three days.

Jimmy's steps stuttered and halted. Scott was holding himself with more confidence than Jimmy had seen before. It was.. well, Jimmy didn't know what it was, but it made something in his chest feel warm.

"Woah." Was all Jimmy could think to say. He noticed that Scott wasn't wearing his gloves.

"Look, Jimmy, you have to go." Scott said. "I'm okay up here. I can't do anything bad to you when I'm here."

"Scott, you've never done anything bad to me." Jimmy said, walking towards him again. "I understand that you're worried, but it's not gonna do any good to anyone if you just isolate yourself."

"You're new to Auradon Prep." Scott said. "You came and the first people you met were me and Xornoth. But we're not like other students. Most students are regular mortals without any powers, we're the outliers there."

"That doesn't mean-"

"When me and Xornoth came to the school, people were scared of us." Scott continued. "They whispered about us in the corridors, they thought that we were plotting something. Our father being Jack Frost didn't help our cases."

"But the Beast cleared your father's name." Jimmy said.

"You think that made a difference to how they saw us?" Scott gave a humourless laugh. "No, they always saw us as a threat. Xornoth knew his powers well when we arrived, but I'd only just grown into them. I didn't know my power, the damage I could cause."

"Surely someone helped you?" Jimmy frowned. He wanted to hug Scott, but he doubted he'd take that kindly. "I mean, Auradon Prep is a school for everyone— there's gotta be a class for that."

"I wish there was." Scott said. "No, I never learnt how to control my magic. The best the school could do were gloves that were enchanted against my magic. But it was too strong. Those gloves never worked."

Scott looked up at Jimmy, and he felt his chest grow warmer. "But up here, I don't have to worry about freezing a textbook, or causing a snowstorm in the cafeteria. I'm free up here."

Jimmy didn't know what to do. He wanted Scott to come back with him. He couldn't leave without him. But Scott didn't want to go, and it'd be mean to take him from such luxury.

"I just.." Jimmy sighed. "I don't want to be without you."

"You're probably better off without me." Scott shrugged, as if he didn't care. "Besides, you've only known me for two weeks. You'll forget about me sooner or later."

"I can't just forget you." Jimmy exclaimed, surprised to find himself angry. He walked over to Scott and grabbed his hands. "You're not just getting rid of me like that, you know. I'm not leaving you here on your own."

Scott looked just as surprised at Jimmy's outburst as Jimmy felt. "You- what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that either you come down with me, or I stay up here with you." Jimmy said firmly.

"What?" Scott held onto Jimmy's hands tighter. "No, you can't. Jimmy you're the son of Ariel, this is as far away from the ocean as you can get in Auradon."

Jimmy shrugged. "I don't care, I'm staying."

"The whole point of me coming up here was so I could protect you." Scott said. "How am I supposed to do that if you're here with me?"

Jimmy grinned. "Ah but that's the point. Either the two of us stay up here, or the two of us go back to Auradon Prep. We're staying together no matter what."

Scott gave a little chuckle of exasperation, leant forward and bonked his head on Jimmy's chest. "You are incredibly annoying."

A/N: if there's a better word to describe what i'm thinking other than 'bonk' then I don't know it
he fell but like not in a fall way

"I've been told this before." Jimmy smiled, his face warm. He wrapped his arms around Scott and, to his pleasure, Scott hugged him back.

"Sorry for making you do all this." Scott mumbled, his voice slightly muffled in Jimmy's coat.

"Oi." Jimmy poked the side of Scott's cheek. "You're not allowed to be sorry. You've been through a lot."

"Yeah, but-"

"Nope, not listening." Jimmy said, leaning back.

Scott frowned for a moment, then his mouth split into a smile. "Ugh, fine."

Jimmy smiled back. "Okay, so what we're gonna do is stay here for a little while, so you can practice your magic. Then we're gonna go back to Auradon, and if you feel like you're starting to loose control, just find me and we can sit outside together where it's quiet."

Scott pulled him back into a hug. "Thank you." He whispered.

Jimmy's chest went warm again. "Anytime."

I want what they have