How to save a monster (Snow-in-Summer)

He takes a careful step forward, she takes one back. 

“Miss Bishop , are you afraid of me?”

Jaime can’t help it. She looks up and her warm eyes meet his ice like ones with a fury so bright it’s blinding.

“Sorry but you aren’t the type of person I’d fear”

Chase smiles but gets rid of it before she sees “Well clearly you don’t know me well enough.” 

“Does anyone?” Chase’s eyes widen at her words but he finds she looks just as shocked as he does. And in truth, Jaime is astonished. 

Oh God. Did I say that out aloud? Well clearly from the look he’s giving me, I must’ve said something incredibly rude. When will I learn not to annoy teenage boys with loads of money at their disposal and too much time on their hands?

“Oh? And what makes you say that?” Chase replies after he’s recovered from the shock of her words. 

Jaime sighs, “Nothing, nothing at all, sometimes I say things I don’t completely mean so-”

“Miss Bishop , we both know you’re not stupid enough to say things you don’t mean” 

Jaime sighs “fine, I do always say what I mean but I don’t always mean to say it aloud” she replies carefully and takes a few hesitant steps towards the door but Chase closes the distance between them, putting an arm up on the wall behind her to stop her from exiting.

“Running away from a question? That seems unlike you. I’m disappointed ” 

Jaime looks up at him, her temper spiking up but since he hasn’t stepped back she finds her head directly under his neck. She flushes red but luckily, she can play that off as anger. Though Chase can’t even focus on her bright red tinted cheeks because he’s too distracted by her proximity. The propinquity makes him feel unsettled and he never feels unsettled. His discomfort is also mixed with something else. Something he hasn’t quite felt in a really long time. Jaime ducks out from under his arm before he can contemplate it more. 

“I said no one knows you because you don’t seem to let anyone close enough to find out. I don’t even know if you want people to get to know you. Sorry if I’m wrong. I judge people. A bad habit I should really work on breaking, anyway, goodnight” Jaime’s about to leave with her tail in between her legs but the sound of Chase’s voice stops her. 

“You’re a strange girl Miss Bishop” She turns around only to meet his dark calculative eyes

“So I’ve been told”

“Yet interesting”

“Well that’s new” Jaime butts in but Chase continues as if she hadn’t said anything at all

“And I cant quite tell if your insanely brave or insanely stupid-”

“I guess we’ll never know” Jaime teases, more than a little humored that he’s casually just saying his thoughts aloud. 

Chase tilts his head “I’m leaning towards stupid but I also know that if I underestimate you, I’ll end up regretting it”

“Oh trust me, with me, what you see is what you get so -”

Chase takes a break from his one sided conversation and looks into her auburn eyes with a slightly amused expression 

“Maybe now is not the best time to prove your lack of complexity when you’re a teenage girl pretending to be a boy”

Jaime smiles and shrugs “Touché”

Chase observes her smile, caught off guard by the kindness in it “Now, if you’ll excuse me I have to go and—”

“How come you’re always so formal with me? You’re only a year older.”

Chase turns back to her, mildly startled “I’m not sure. This is how I talk to everyone.”

Jaime nods slowly, backing towards the door “well,” she shrugs “it suits you.”

Chase tilts his head, his glasses sliding down his nose slightly. He uses one of his long slender fingers to push it back up. “I see, anyway, ” Chase catches the way the light from outside in the hallway dances in her eyes and knows he’s far too curious about the sparks in them to be in her presence any longer “goodnight Miss Bishop.”

Jaime smiles despite his sudden coldness “Night Chase.”

She’s about to step through when she turns back to him “And for the record, I won’t ever fear you. I promise” her eyes shine, so honest and true that Chase almost wants to let her go, to let her believe that lie but he can’t, she deserves the truth. He notices she’s about to leave so he says “I’m afraid Ms Bishop, that is not a promise you can make.”

She turns to him in shock, just in time to hear him add “You have not seen the havoc I can cause. You don’t know me so it’s understandable that you do not believe I am a monster but I am, one you should most certainly fear.”

 Jaime just takes a moment to look at Chase . To really look at him. She suddenly sees that he doesn’t have his usual rigid posture. His black, usually perfectly styled hair is mused. There are dark semi circles under his eyes that she hadn’t notice before because of his glasses. His pants are lose, his belt half undone. He looks so messy and unorganized and so unlike the boy that she’d thought she had pinned down. She thought he was simply a rich clever heir, and he is. But he’s so so much more than that. In the dimly lit room, with only the moonlight illuminating his sharp features and hair that looks like he’s run his hands through it countless times, she sees him. She gets a glimpse of the true him. The him behind his cold, hard, sharp exterior. He looks real... he looks human. And here he stands, telling her he’s a monster. In the moment he looks so fragile, so utterly vulnerable. Jaime knows now that everyone had gotten it wrong, including herself. He’s not as put together as everyone thinks. At least not in the way his façade intends to make him appear. He’s broken. Jaime gasps as she wonders about how long he’s been broken for. Has he even had a day without those dark circles? Has he ever had a day when smiling doesn’t feel like a chore? No wonder he doesn’t smile much... what does he have to smile about?

“Chase,” her voice is so soft and gentle it gains his attention immediately, “can I tell you a story?”

He’s so thrown by her words that he almost stutters as he responds “uh, like I said previously, I have work—”

She nods, giving that smile that makes him feel things he didn’t think he was capable of feeling. “I know,” she moves back into his room and Chase inhales sharply when her hand brushes his as she walks over to the edge of his bed and sits down, patting the seat beside her “but it will only take a moment.” 

Chase looks at her again, at her terribly- cut cropped hair and baggy clothing, at her red-brown eyes and warm smile and before he knows what he’s doing, he finds himself moving towards the bed too and taking the seat next to her. She turns to him, not waiting for him to interrupt her by asking how long it may take or something, she starts speaking. 

“Once upon a time, there was a girl who liked bed time stories.” Chase nods, trying to keep the smile off his face from the faraway look that brightens her features as he continues to listen. 

“Her favourite story was called ‘Snow in Summer’ and it was about a Winter Elf who fell madly with a Summer Faerie. However, they could never be together because if they spent too long in the other one’s realm, the Summer faerie would freeze from the cold and the Winter Elf would get blisters from the heat.” 

Chase raises an eyebrow at the fantasy of it all and animated tone her voice embodies but doesn't interrupt her

“So, one day the Elf asked the faerie what she wanted more than anything else in the world and she said she wanted to see the snow.” 

Chase tilts his head but doesn’t speak so she proceeds

“So the Winter Elf, knowing she would not survive if she saw the snow in the winter realm, decided he would bring the snow to her. He went to the summer realm and hid under the shelter of a tree near her cottage. He then saw her standing by her window and shouted that she could just stay there and watch what would happen. She asked him what he was doing but he told her it was a surprise and that she mustn’t come outside.” Jaime looks down for a moment and smiles a small sad smile that makes Chase realize that this story is personal. He’s about to tell her she doesn’t have to continue if it’s hard to talk about but she looks up again, that same strong indomitable spark in her eyes. 

“So she didn’t and he focused on using his winter powers to make it snow from the cloud just above her house. Since it was the summer realm the conditions were not ideal so it took longer than expected. He could feel the blisters on his skin. He could feel himself getting weaker but he closed his eyes and pictured the Summer Faerie in his head. Her soft golden hair and emerald eyes. Her small button nose and warm smile, and the fact that she loved him.” She takes a small shaky breath “That fact alone was what kept him going until finally, he felt the clouds give way and snow fall.“ Jaime smiles and breathes a sigh of relief as if she doesn’t actually know how the story ends. “He walked out from underneath the tree and looked up at the snow as it fell, healing his blisters. The Summer Faerie smiled as she saw him standing there and even though they were apart, they watched the snow together and she had been granted her wish.” Jaime sighs contentedly and Chase can’t help the small laugh that escapes but she hardly seems to notice because she just keeps her eyes trained on his

“He had done the impossible for her. He had loved here so much, ”Chase can see the tears welling in Jaime’s doe eyes but instead of drowning out the light inside them, it only magnifies it, “he had made it snow in summer.”

Chase nods slowly “ that’s a sweet story, who told it to you?”

“My parents,” she whispers and Chase’s eyes widen at the amount of anguish in her voice “My mum” she swipes at the streaks of salty water that leave her eyes “used to tell me that my dad was like her snow-in-summer. That was a common term around our house. It kinda meant whatever it is we were talking about was a type of rarity, a type of special something that is so magical that it shouldn’t exist at all. That’s why she called my dad her snow-in-summer. My dad however, thought of the phrase another way, no less special then my mum’s but,” Jaime smirks “somewhat more relevant to the point I’m trying to prove.”

Chase regards her carefully, having no idea why he is so utterly intrigued by whatever it is she’s about to say but deciding to contemplate it more later and just listen to her now 

“My dad thought of himself as snow and my mum as summer. Since, well... my dad actually grew up in the same world as you. He was the heir of Feuilles d'or, the hotel.” 

Chase’s eyes widen. He knew that hotel because his dad had recently bought it since it was close to bankruptcy.

“Anyway, he said that he was like snow and my mum was like Summer because they were never meant to exist together and yet it was the warmth from her smile that melted the ice around his heart. He didn’t think he was capable of love before he meant her, believe it or not, he thought he was a monster too. He didn’t care about anything or anyone before he met my mum and then he left the hotel and started a new life, getting the happily ever after he deserved.”

Chase nods slowly, now realizing what the purpose of her story was. He looks down and turns away

“So, you’re trying to convince me I’m not a monster? Or that I can change?” 

Jaime smiles, her red brown eyes glittering despite there being hardly any light in the room “No.”

Chase’s eyes flick to hers, and he doesn’t bother to hide his shock 

“I’m saying that even if you don’t change,” her eyes never leave his, “even if you really are a monster,” she whispers, her next phrase about to challenge everything he’s ever known “I still hope you get your happy ending.”

Chase takes several moments to recover, his usually very organized mind becomes a mess, his normally calm exterior starts crumbling but he turns away from her before she can see it

“You should go.”

Jaime instantly feels like she’s gone too far, possibly even insulted him but she nods dejectedly and moves off the bed. Yet, she can’t seem to take a single step towards the door

“I will leave for now but I’m not going to leave you alone.”

Chase feels another tidal wave of shock rampage through his body. He takes a breath, closing his eyes and  calms the nerves that have never bothered him before now. He brings his eyes to hers slowly

“What?”

“The only reason my dad learned how to love is because my mum stayed by him. Even after she saw his scars, even after she saw how much havoc he could cause — she still stayed. So, so will I.”

Chase feels his heart beat thump loudly, echoing in his head. A heart he had thought for the last few years was dormant. A heart he forgot had. 

For a moment he thinks she’s left but then suddenly he hears footsteps approaching and before he can realise what’s happening, she’s in front of him, crouching down so he can’t look anywhere but in her eyes. 

“Like snow-in-summer Chase, we aren’t meant to exist together. Your world and my world are two very different places but just like snow-in-summer, we can be the exception, the rarity.” 

Chase’s eyes widen but he looks away. Suddenly he feels something soft graze his jaw and he tenses when he realises its her fingertips. She turns his face so his eyes meet hers again 

“Even if you really are a monster Chase, even if you choose to stay one - I don’t care. I’m not going anywhere. You can push me away, you can ruin my reputation and make my life hell until I have nothing but you left to lose but I will not give up. I refuse to give you up” 

Chase feels himself flinch, almost as if she’d hurt him somehow. He closes his eyes and takes a breath before he settles his voice enough to give out a steady “Why?”    

“Because Chase,” Jaime doesn’t miss a beat, her eyes blaze, that warm smile makes an appearance as she shrugs “the the only way to save a monster is by loving it.”