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Which meant no matter what Jesse did, it wouldn’t be much of a help. He was left behind to wait and watch in growing anxiety, clenching his hands to fists to try and stay calm as Jamie moved farther and farther away.

In the center of the small lake, Jamie finally came to a stop.

He stood there for a moment, on one single patch of ice beneath his feet, and raised his head to look up at the moon. He took in a long, deep breath… and then, suddenly, he twirled on his heel—the way he often did in his dances—and dropped to bring his fist down upon the surface of the waters.

A blue shockwave of ice surged out from where he stood, spreading out in all directions like a sudden frost.

He was trying to freeze the whole damn lake.

Jesse couldn’t just stand by anymore.

“Jamie!” he called across the waters, a surge of panic washing over him. “Jamie, stop!”

But Jamie made no response. Just like before, he didn’t seem to even hear Jesse’s words.

Fuck!

What now?!

The thick ice reached the shore only moments later.

Without even a second thought, Jesse stepped out onto it, and began to race across it towards Jamie.

But he found himself struggling to keep his feet under him, slipping and sliding in the dark and fighting to stay upright.

He kept his eyes fixed on Jamie, however, and let his determination drive him onward.

It seemed as though Jamie wasn’t done yet. He brought both hands down to the ice and pressed against it, closing his eyes tightly as if to concentrate. And now that Jesse was getting closer, he could see that Jamie’s arms were shaking, and his chest was heaving with labored, staggered breaths.

The ice under Jesse’s feet shifted. He heard a loud crack sound off behind him and looked over his shoulder, seeing the ice begin to shatter and melt near the banks once again; like Jamie had overexerted himself, and now his creation was being undone, unable to last one moment longer .

“Jamie!” Jesse called again, trying even harder to get to his partner as his heart raced painfully in his chest. “ Jamie, please stop! ”

Ahead of him, Jamie finally seemed to hear him.

He snapped his head up and turned to look at Jesse, his eyes wide and glossed over with exhaustion.

“J-Jesse,” he rasped, pushing himself to stand, only to let out a sharp gasp and drop back down onto his hands and knees.

He couldn’t get back up. He’d pushed himself too far, just like Jesse had feared he would.

A fierce determination coursed through Jesse at the sight of it, and he pushed himself to run even faster—but the ice under his feet grew more unstable with every passing second; shifting and splintering and lurching beneath him and making it nearly impossible to move quickly.

Behind him, the loud creaks and cracks of the breaking ice merged with the sound of the splashing, sloshing water it rapidly melted into.

It was getting louder and louder, and as he looked back over his shoulder, Jesse was shocked to see that it was all falling apart even faster than it had been before.

He would fall before he could ever reach Jamie.

But then Jamie called out his name again, and Jesse turned just in time to see Jamie press his hands onto the ice once more, a blue light appearing on them.

A wave of cold swept towards Jesse. The ice underneath his feet stabilized, refreezing and strengthening the path where he stood, and solidifying all the way to the shore.

Jamie had created a path back to safety.

Only for Jesse.

For Jamie, it seemed to be the last straw. His eyes rolled back in his head as they fluttered shut, and he collapsed in what appeared to be a full faint—right as the ice shattered below him, and he dropped into the waters like a stone.

“NO!”

The yell was ripped from Jesse’s throat almost unwittingly, as his heart stopped dead in his chest, and all thought was driven from his head. On instinct, he ignored the path Jamie had made for him, and rushed forth instead—diving, without hesitation, into the lake to go after Jamie.

The bitter cold consumed him after the plunge.

His muscles seized and his lungs immediately ached from the impulse to draw in a gasp, though he managed to fight off the urge, and keep his breath held.

His body hadn’t expected the shock of the frigid water, and it took a moment for him to regain enough control over his limbs to begin swimming downward.

He forced his eyes open to search for Jamie, but it was too dark to see nearly anything.

His heart pounded against his ribs as second after second passed and his lungs screamed for air, and his body began to numb in the cold.

Suddenly, something grasped at his wrist. He was pulled forward in the deep waters, and something pressed itself against his chest and wrapped an arm around his waist.

Something white floated in front of his face.

Jamie!

Jesse grasped tightly at the figure in his arms. His instincts screamed at him to swim up, now that he finally had what he came down for.

But even as he kicked his legs to head for the surface, they only kept sinking farther.

Jamie was too heavy for him, the pull of the water too strong.

The crushing water pulled them both down into the deep, and darkness began to close in all around them.

But then, something shifted.

As the arms around his waist tightened, the water stopped pulling them down. Instead, they were rapidly pushed upwards, and after only a few more moments, Jesse’s head broke through the lake surface, and he was able to gasp in a gulping breath of air.

He shuddered violently as the freezing water ran down his hair and streamed down his face, and choked on the bit of it that had got in his mouth.

But he could breathe again. And although his heart still raced painfully within him and his limbs were still numb from the cold, he felt an immeasurable relief wash over him.

Especially when he found, upon regaining enough control of his faculties to think again, that he still held Jamie in his arms .

Jamie must’ve controlled the water to bring them back to the surface.

He didn’t seem to be having any of the same difficulties breathing that Jesse did; he looked heavily exhausted, of course, but his icy blue eyes were alight with determination as his gaze was fixed to the shore—holding tightly onto Jesse as something like a wave carried them there.

Finally, the two were dropped onto solid ground, and the frigid waters receded back into the lake.

Jesse tried to move, only to find that he couldn’t. In the heat of the moment, his adrenaline had carried him through, but now the panic and the pain and the fear of losing Jamie crashed down upon him in a surge of pure exhaustion and despair.

It felt like Jamie was hurting himself with his powers.

He refused to stop, refused to slow down, and refused to share his burden by letting Jesse in.

Shakily, Jesse rolled onto his side, still gasping for breath and shaking like a leaf as he looked over to Jamie lying next to him.

He, too, was shivering and heaving in staggered breaths of air.

But it looked more like the breathlessness that had often accompanied Jamie after a nightmare; as if he was too panicked or frightened to get any air in.

Swallowing his frustration, Jesse reached out to weakly grasp at Jamie’s hand. “Are – are you okay?”

Jamie turned his face towards Jesse, and gave him a look he could not interpret.

His bright blue eyes were wide and haunted in his pale face, and he grimaced as if he’d been struck.

Before Jamie could form any kind of reply, he let out a deep, shuddering breath, and his eyes lost their focus and fluttered closed once more.

He’d passed out again. And after all the frantic, overwhelming stress and turmoil of what had just happened, and with the pain in his heart growing more and more pressing, it felt to Jesse like the final blow.

* * *

Jamie

Jamie was only out for a few moments. And even then, he didn’t black out in entirety. Instead, it was more like he’d half dozed off for just a minute, and then had woken right back up—disoriented, dizzy, exhausted, but awake nonetheless.

So he heard every word Jesse yelled at him.

“Fuck! Fuck! Wake up! Jamie, wake up! God, this was so stupid! What the hell is wrong with you? Are you trying to get yourself killed ?!”

Somehow, the words hurt Jamie far more than any physical pain ever could.

As he slowly got pulled back into full consciousness, he found himself struggling to fight back tears.

He swallowed hard to push down a lump in his throat as he wiped hurriedly at his eyes, unsure how much of the moisture there was tears and how much of it was the water still dripping down his face from the lake.

All he knew was that he was tired, and miserable, and confused—and dizzy and weak and his limbs were shaking and aching awfully.

And Jesse was yelling at him.

He had to get out of here.

Pushing himself up onto his hands and knees was a punishing chore against his sore and wavering muscles, but he fought through the pain and managed to do it, before staggering the rest of the way to his feet.

“What are you doing?” Jesse rasped next to him, looking up in disbelief from where he fought to sit up from the ground himself. “Don’t tell me you’re about to try again!”

Of course he wasn’t about to try again!

He just needed to get away! He couldn’t take having Jesse yell at him like this!

So he forced himself to keep going, taking a few wobbly steps forward as the pain in his muscles intensified and his lungs contracted painfully beneath his ribs. But he’d fought through terrible pain before—(had he?)—so he kept pushing himself anyway.

Until Jesse caught hold of his wrist.