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There it was again, out of nowhere. Jesse didn’t even have to initiate it, because Jamie was already a step ahead.

“…And then we can test out this queen-sized bed,” Jesse smirked.

He certainly didn’t dawdle on his way to the nearest fast-food joint. In fact, he didn’t remember the last time he’d moved so fast. He was out and back again with a burger before the sun had even finished going down.

“I’m back,” he called as he entered the room. “I brought you a—”

Jamie stood up, a wide grin on his face, with dark brown hair and brown eyes.

Brown hair and brown eyes.

Jesse almost dropped the bag in shock.

“Wha—Jamie?!” he stared. “What happened to your hair and eyes?”

“Isn’t it great?” Jamie beamed. “I’m back to normal! ”

…Yeah.

Yeah, it was… great.

“Um…” Jesse ran a hand over his face. “H-how?”

“I figured out a way to lock up my powers!”

“ Huh?! ”

“I’ve been trying to do it for a while, so I don’t accidentally hit you again,” Jamie explained, snatching the bag from Jesse and pulling the burger from it as he talked.

“I just knew I would be able to do this, the same way I knew I could ask water to grow cold, but it’s been very hard to actually make it happen. And now it finally worked!”

Jesse dropped to sit on the bed, struggling to process the news. Somehow, after all this time, it felt wrong to see Jamie with dark hair and eyes again. Jesse had gotten so used to his other look that seeing him the way he’d been before felt strange. “You… locked your powers away?”

Jamie nodded, still looking proud as he unwrapped his burger and began to eat.

“But…” Jesse cleared his throat. Deep within, he couldn’t deny the sinking feeling pulling at his stomach. “They aren’t gone now, are they?”

Jamie stifled back a surprised laugh as he hurriedly swallowed his bite so he could speak again. “No, of course they aren’t! I only locked them in, that doesn’t mean I got rid of them! I can just set them free again, whenever I want.”

“You’re… sure about that?” Jesse checked.

“Yes, of course! Here, watch.” Jamie closed his eyes and let out a deep breath—and after a few seconds, the white in his hair spread down from the top once more like snow. He opened his eyes, back to a bright, piercing blue, and smiled. “See?”

Jesse literally felt his jaw drop. Everything crashed over him all at once. Seeing Jamie change his appearance on purpose had somehow flipped a switch in Jesse’s brain that put a stop to the denial and made him admit to the truth once and for all—and now he was reeling .

“This is fucking insane,” he found himself muttering. “Sorry, but… I have no words. You can just… switch back and forth?!”

“I think I need to practice a bit more, but yes,” Jamie nodded, still smiling proudly, as if nothing was wrong whatsoever.

“And you’ve been trying to do this to… keep me safe?” Jesse recalled.

“Yeah!” Jamie beamed and sat on the bed next to Jesse.

He seemed to realize, then, that Jesse wasn’t exactly thrilled.

He blinked, looking confused for a moment, and then sighed.

“Jesse, I know you keep saying it wasn’t my fault, but the evidence all points to my powers as being the reason you ended up hurt.

And this way, it just cannot happen again.

” He closed his blue eyes again, his white hair fading back to dark brown.

He opened his brown eyes once more, fixing his gaze on Jesse with a serious, resolved stare.

“I’d do anything to keep you safe,” he promised.

“So I’ll… call this my ‘safe form.’ Anything it takes, to make sure I never lose you. ”

“You’re not going to lose me, alright?” Jesse promised, reaching up to gently push a strand of Jamie’s dark hair out of his brown eyes. “If this ‘safe form’ is what you need in order to feel okay with what we do, then that’s fine with me. I’ll just… need a bit of time to actually process this.”

Though… somehow the words didn’t just feel right, no matter how hard he tried.

It was fantastic that Jamie had managed to lock his powers away of course, and that he’d done it for such a selfless reason.

But somewhere deep within, Jesse had to admit that he really didn’t want Jamie to lock the powers away. Or at least not all of them.

And he’d promised not to lie.

Granted, that didn’t mean he wasn’t allowed to have private thoughts, and clearly Jamie was doing that as well. But the key to all healthy relationships was communication, or so he’d always heard.

Maybe he should lead by example.

Jesse swallowed, forcing himself to continue, in the name of good communication. “Do you really have to lock all your powers away…?”

“Yes, of course!” Jamie said. “That’s the best way to keep you safe, isn’t it?”

“But—” Jesse shifted his weight, not at all sure why he suddenly felt so awkward. “Can’t you… maybe leave a couple of them active?”

Confusion stained Jamie’s features. “What?”

“Well… I didn’t know I’d ever say something like this, but, um… I might have a kink for… some of your powers…”

Jamie’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Um, d-don’t – don’t get me wrong, okay? I mean, I wouldn’t enjoy us having sex any less without this but… when – when things get… really heated, then your touches and kisses… well, they get ice cold,” Jesse admitted. “And I love that feeling a lot.”

Jamie stared in shock. “B-but this is exactly why I need to lock my powers away! I need to control myself! I didn’t even realize I wasn’t!”

“But you don’t have to!” Jesse protested. “I understand that you’re locking them away for my sake, but what if I’d rather feel them?”

“That’s a risk I’m not willing to take,” Jamie insisted. “Not after I sent you to the hospital.”

“You didn’t—nevermind.” Jesse took in a breath to calm himself down, trying to approach the problem calmly and rationally. “Jamie… You’ve been using those powers on me for weeks, without even realizing it, and I’ve been completely fine the whole time.”

“…Yes?” Jamie asked. “So?”

“So, clearly those few little powers aren’t at all dangerous,” Jesse continued.

“Maybe, could you try and figure out a way to just lock up the dangerous things, and leave those few little powers on, just for me?” Jesse was well aware he was looking at Jamie with some pretty big puppy eyes right now.

But, if he needed puppy eyes for this, he was totally fine with it.

Jamie gave him a long, uncertain look, but then he gave in with a sigh. “I… don’t know. But… for you, I’ll give it a try.”

Yes!

Jamie closed his eyes once more, and this time he didn’t open them again for a full minute. He just sat there, still holding the burger in his hand, a serious, deep frown pulling at his brow.

As the silence dragged on, Jesse’s heart sank a little.

It wasn’t working.

Jamie was going to give up in a moment. He would tell Jesse that it was all or nothing and that he’d made the executive decision to go with ‘nothing.’ And Jesse knew he would be okay with it.

Being intimate would be just as amazing without ice.

He cared about Jamie, more deeply than he’d ever cared about anyone before; he loved just being with him, talking to him, walking with him down the beach, sharing an ice cream, holding his hand.

It didn’t matter if Jamie managed to leave some of his powers active or not.

But… after these weeks of ecstasy, Jesse would have to say goodbye to something that felt so good, and he couldn’t shake the slight disappointment that came with it.

Then, Jamie opened his eyes again—which were still brown—and smirked at him.

Jesse’s heart soared. “D-did it work?”

A wide grin was all over Jamie’s face. He glanced down at his burger, only one bite taken, and then he wrapped it back up, dropped it into the bag, and tossed the bag onto the bedside table.

Then he slid closer, the mattress dipping slightly under his weight, before he leaned in to close the gap between them, pressing his lips teasingly against Jesse’s.

They were ice cold.

The feeling sent a shiver down Jesse’s spine, literally.

And another shiver, even more intense than the first, as Jamie slowly ran his fingertips upwards on Jesse’s arm, leaving behind a thin trail of ice.

Jamie gave the burger on the bedside table one last glance. “I think,” he purred, “dinner can wait.”