Jason woke the next morning with an unusual smile on his face.

Sae, who'd twined himself around the outside of Jason's ear as he did every night, turned back into his regular fluffy shape--impossibly fluffy, if you asked Jason, considering the Ascended was made out of ice.

"Jason," said Sae. "Your mouth is doing something weird. Should I be concerned?"

Still laying on his back, Jason scooped Sae up in his palm and scratched the top feathers of the Ascended's head. "I have this unusually strange feeling. It's the one Banshee always seems to be infected with. 'Happy', I believe it's called."

"Most unusual," said Sae, adjusting his head so Jason was massaging his cheeks. "Yes, I think I like this happy thing compared to the usual whatever it is you are. Can I ask what caused this happy so I can make it happen again later?"

Jason continued scratching Sae as he thought it over. He couldn't pin it down exactly. It was more that he simply felt content, and despite his duties, he felt in control. He could handle them. There were deadlines and responsibilities, but right here, in this moment, they weren't heavy on his shoulders.

That, he realised, and he hadn't had the nightmare.

"Does there have to be a reason?" said Jason, sitting up and crossing his legs under the covers.

"I thought it might be making up with that girl last night," said Sae. "I don't think I've ever seen you so terrified that someone was going to hate you."

Jason tossed Sae into the air, who gave a rather offended squawk as Jason stretched his arms up and got out of bed.

"I wasn't terrified," said Jason.

"I can sense your mood, Jase. I've seen you face down Manifested with far less horror than the idea of talking to--"

Jason sighed. "Sae, that does not help the happy."

Sae landed on Jason's head and snuggled in. "No, but it helps mine."

After the rest of his morning routine, Jason returned to his room and quickly dressed himself. He walked to the window, where the small flower he'd been encouraging back to life after Gerald had nearly killed it was sitting in its pot. With a glove on, Jason scraped away some of the rocky dirt near the furthest edge and plucked the small, black crystal he'd hidden there from the soil.

Jason rolled Ella's corrupted fragment into his palm, watching the way it glinted in the light.

"Whatchu gonna do with that?" said Sae, crawling onto Jason's shoulder and plopping his beak down.

"I'm uncertain," said Jason. "Keeping it where I live would be a giveaway to my identity if it were discovered, but I seem to remember Golem's warning that we should never keep a corrupted fragment, so I'm concerned that if I hide it, it may influence someone else."

"The reason you can't keep a corrupted fragment usually is because they need an owner," said Sae casually. "Keep it near you long enough, and boom, you become that owner. Once they have an owner though, they're harmless to anyone else."

"How can you be sure a corrupted fragment has an owner?"

"Cos you can't break it," said Sae. "Also, because Ella drew on its power. You can only do that if you accept the owner thing."

"Could Ella find it, if she wanted to?"

"Might take her a while, but she could," said Sae. "Only if she really wanted to, though. Once you're bonded to a corrupted fragment, it's part of you. Only if--" Sae squawked. "Starlight dim it all, that's all I got. Rules kicking in." He lifted his beak to the ceiling. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm just trying to help the kid out, geez!"

"There's someone who enforces the rules?" asked Jason. "Skypillar?"

"Can't say," said Sae. "I already tell you way more than I'm supposed to, birdbrain."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "Again with Banshee's insults? Are you jealous too?"

Sae shrugged. "Of your ignorance? Never."

Jason gave the fragment a few minutes of thought before he came up with a solution. Placing the fragment back into the dirt, he removed the glove and picked up the flower in its pot.

He flipped up his collar. "Let's go, Sae."

"Where you taking the flower? Are we gonna plant Ella's fragment?"

"Somewhat."

With Sae frozen under his collar, Jason headed out in the Gleamer.

Shortly after, he arrived at the florist, parked in his usual place out of sight of the street, and walked inside.

With the early hour, Gerald and his two assistants were run off their feet organising the day's deliveries, but the old shopkeep still noticed Jason as he slipped through the door.

"Jason!" Gerald called. "Little busy, but it's good to see you!"

Jason lifted a hand in return. "Just returning the flower now it's stronger. I won't be long."

"All good, all good," said Gerald, who nodded happily before going back to bustling around the shop front.

Inside the greenhouse, Jason closed the door firmly behind him, ensuring he'd have plenty of warning if someone were to enter. He tied the apron on and pulled on some gloves before heading into the cooler climate section and getting to work.

The snow lilies were doing well, as he should have expected. They always did after Sae had spent time with them. It felt somewhat like cheating considering the praise Gerald gave him as a result, but considering he'd single handedly managed to double the cultivated population of lilies in the city, Jason was somewhat okay with it.

He touched one of the sky-blue petals. Perhaps one day, he'd be able to cultivate enough to drop the extravagant price people paid for them. More people would be able to justify buying things like snow cookies if they weren't as expensive, and Jason was firmly convinced that snow cookies were something everyone should enjoy at least once in their life.

Aware of the time, Jason forced himself to hurry up.

The snow lilies weren't the only flower kept here. There were several others like the amber flower in the pot he carried that also needed the cold to thrive, though the flower species itself didn't yet have a name. He'd found it as Cryo while searching for other patches of snow lilies on Skypillar's side and decided to take a sample to see if it could be cultivated like the snow lilies. There was more than one florist in this city interested in a new breed of flower.

Jason tipped the flower out of the pot and planted it back into the rocky flowerbed he'd devised for the species. Then, taking Ella's fragment, he compared it against the small, grey stones. The fragment possessed a shine that the stones lacked and was darker in colour, but shape wise, it matched. Carefully, Jason rearranged several of the rocks and buried Ella's fragment underneath them, right in the corner where it was unlikely to be disturbed.

"Unless, of course, Gerald manages to break the air conditioner and flood the cool climate section again," Jason murmured to Sae, who just made his usual bird-like chuckle in reply.

Jason stood up and studied the flowerbed, ensuring nothing appeared unusual or out of place. When he was certain he hadn't made any careless mistakes, he checked with Sae, and after the Ascended's approval, made a sign that he drove into the front of the flowerbed.

DO NOT DISTURB FLOWERBED UNLESS VITAL TO PLANT HEALTH.

Just to be certain, Jason took a picture with his Liaiser of the flowerbed, ensuring the view of the back corner where Ella's fragment lay was unobstructed and clear when he zoomed in.

Satisfied, Jason removed his apron and gloves and left.

*+*+*+*

A few hours later, Jason found himself in the waiting room of the hospital unable to stop tapping the heel of his foot against the floor.

He had absolutely no idea why it was taking so long. Olivia and her mother had been in the doctor's office for what felt like an hour, but a glance at his Liaiser told him it'd been barely thirty minutes. He'd long since finalised the payment, whatever it turned out to be. The amount would barely be missed from the temple funds he was allowed to access each month. For the first time, he felt they were going to a cause that actually helped someone.

Jason looked up at the corridor they'd followed the doctor into.

What was taking them so long? Was something wrong? Had he--

The collecting doubts were scattered as the piece of ice frozen to the inside of his collar suddenly popped it up by turning into a bird the size of his fist.

"Jason!" whispered Sae, smacking Jason's cheek with the top of his wing. "I'm gonna peck your leg off at the knee if you don't stop tapping your foot!"

It took all of Jason's willpower not to turn and glare at his Ascended. "Sae, someone's going to see you."

"Good! Then I won't be stuck with you and your damn foot! Stop it!"

Jason made an effort to steady his leg. "Happy?"

"Very much so. My sanity thanks you."

"How about your sanity--"

Voices in the hallway quieted them both. Sae disappeared back under Jason's collar, who flattened it and took a deep breath to settle his heart rate. He dropped himself back into his usual passive exterior and pretended to be interested in his Liaiser.

It didn't last long. Though he couldn't catch the exact words spoken, he knew the sound of Olivia's voice. When she came around the corner, Jason couldn't stop himself from looking at her.

She'd been nervous when the doctor had called her in. Despite reassurances from her mother that they'd done this a million times now, Olivia's final glance at Jason before she disappeared had set his own anxiety in motion.

Now, she was radiant. Her smile practically lit up the room as she walked in, and, Skypillar save him, it was infectious.

As her mother replied to something the doctor had said, Olivia's gaze met Jason's.

She ran over to him, her arms outstretched. Maybe it was just because Sae's risky comments had thrown him off his usual balance, but when she reached Jason, he found his own arms open and waiting for her.

Olivia collided into him without bothering to slow herself down and nearly knocked them both over, forcing Jason to hold her up with one arm around her waist as the other steadied them against the wall. Olivia seemed completely oblivious to the fact and continued to try and crush him in the hug.

She didn't say anything, and after a few seconds ticked by, Jason cleared his throat.

"Uh... so, all good, then?" he asked.

Olivia pulled away, her hands on his shoulders as she bounced on the balls of her feet. The smile never left her face. "All sorted! You really have no idea--I dunno, maybe you do--but just, yup! Thank you, thank you so much."

A thousand replies came to mind, but only one came out.

"You're welcome," he said softly, unable to keep the corners of his mouth from tweaking upwards.

Olivia grabbed her bag from her side and, tilting its opening towards her, unzipped it and began to rummage through. It took a moment, but the familiar crinkle of the snow-cookie wrapping told Jason what was going on before Olivia produced two cookies on her palm and held it out.

"Take one," said Olivia. "We're celebrating!"

The receptionist glanced up from her desk. "Sorry, but no food allowed in here, Liv. Take it outside."

Olivia closed her hand and pulled the cookies back to her chest. "Sorry, Sal!" She glanced back to Jason. "C'mon."

She led him out a side door but didn't stop there, instead taking him along a little path that went between a narrow gap in the hedges he'd thought lined the building. To his surprise, on the other side was a garden perhaps about ten metres wide. The late morning sunlight filtered perfectly into the secluded space, bouncing off the small water feature in the centre above the pond.

Olivia walked over to one of the benches and sat down, gesturing for Jason to join her.

As he took his place beside her, Olivia held out her palm with one of the snow cookies.

"Take it," she said. "We must eat the cookies. Together!"

"I couldn't," said Jason, holding up his hand. "They're yours."

"Exactly," said Olivia. She grabbed his wrist and stuck the cookie in his hand. "They're mine, so I can share them with whoever I want. I'm not gonna sit here and make you watch while I stuff my face, Frostsong."

Jason kept his eyes on the cookie, inspecting its light blue, crumbly surface like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "We're back to Frostsong, are we?"

Olivia shrugged. "Only when you're being stubborn."

"Stubborn, you say, Shadowheart?" said Jason, glancing at her.

Olivia just grinned. "Exactly. Stubborn. Now!" She lifted the cookie above her head. "I propose a toast, to friends and delicious things!" When Jason didn't immediately join her, she elbowed him. "I said, a toast to friends and delicious things, Frostsong."

Half scared of the look she was giving him, Jason lifted his cookie. "Aren't toasts usually made with liquids?"

Olivia snorted and bit into her cookie. "Pfft. There's no rulebook for making toasts."

Jason couldn't help it. "Actually--"

Olivia held up her finger and narrowed her eyes. "Let me correct myself. There's no rulebook for making toasts that I care about."

"Well in that case," said Jason. He raised his cookie. "To friends and delicious things."

Her cookie finished before he'd even started his, Olivia leaned back on the bench and closed her eyes.

"I forgot how good they are," she said. "I think I could live on the things. They're like what you expect that really soft, delicate snow to taste like before you first catch some on your tongue and realise it's just frozen water."

Jason took a bite from his cookie, letting the silence between them settle before he spoke. "Have you ever seen the flowers they use to make these?"

"Nope," said Olivia, stretching her arms above her head. "Aren't they really high on Skypillar?"

"That is where they naturally grow, yes," said Jason. "But there's places in the city that have been cultivating them."

"That's pretty cool," said Olivia. "I don't think there'd be anything like seeing them in their natural habitat, though. Up in the frozen peaks, way above anything in this city where people couldn't survive for long but these flowers thrive. It'd be amazing."

It was. The feeling that you were the only person in the world. That the petty drama started by petty people who would claw at anyone to climb a little higher didn't matter.

"It would be," said Jason, and finished his cookie.

Olivia stood up and walked over to the pond, where she crouched down and dusted her hands together over the water. Curious, Jason followed her, and was more than a little surprised to see hundreds of tiny, orange fish living inside the pond.

"They have fish here?" he asked.

"It's why it's one of my favourite places," she said quietly, looking at the flecks of orange as they darted around under the surface. "Their little fishy family has been here longer than I've been alive."

"The temple's tried keeping fish like these before," said Jason. "They never seem to do well. It's not long before they turn sickly. We could never work out why."

Olivia shrugged, an awkward movement with her arms crossed over her knees. "The staff say that a patient who spent her days at the hospital made an Offering request, and one of the old Mer Lumi's answered it. She brought waters down from the Celestial's eye and blessed them so that the fish could survive."

"And so you feed them the crumbs of your snow cookie?" asked Jason.

"Or my sandwich, whatever I happened to have at the time," said Olivia. "I figure they probably appreciate it."

Jason lifted his hands above the pond and brushed his fingers together as gracefully as he could manage. There wasn't many, but what few crumbs remained on his fingers scattered over the surface of the water. The fish worked quickly, and a few seconds after, any trace of his actions had been eaten.

Olivia seemed more than a little amused by something if her attempt at containing her laughter was anything to go by.

"What did I do?" asked Jason.

She waved him off. "Nothing, nothing. The fish thank you, Jason Frostsong."

"I thought Frostsong was only for when I was being stubborn."

"Which is why I included your first name this time."

"And why did you include my first name?"

Olivia's Liaiser buzzed in her pocket. "Mum's done, let's go."

Jason stood up, still waiting for a response. "That doesn't excuse you from answering my question."

Olivia blinked and pressed her lips together in the image of innocence itself. "Question, Jason?" She gave him an over exaggerated frown. "Nope. I don't remember a question."

And with that, she skipped off, hands behind her back, leaving him to trail behind her.

*+*+*+*

A/N - So much fluff. HANDLE IT. 

Speaking of fluff, I wrote a short thing for Valentines day with Shifthira~ It's up on my blog/facebook page, along with a freakin' adorable picture from Kiba <3 

and speaking of Shifthira... exciting things might be happening in April~ Might have been moving at a turtle's pace, but it's almost here ;)