Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.
"Merida, come on!"
Rapunzel's tone took on a slight whine as she leaned over the table, giving her friend a dismayed look. Merida scowled at her, arms crossed stubbornly.
"No, Punzie! Ah absolutely refuse!"
"But it'll be fun!" Rapunzel insisted, putting on her most winning smile. Merida's pout did not falter in the slightest.
Jack sighed, shaking his head. Merida may have had the willpower to hold out against Rapunzel, but he knew if he had been on the receiving end of that beam he was sure he wouldn't have been so lucky.
"Please?"
"No!"
Rapunzel's entire body seemed to wilt, her expression genuinely crushed as it slowly dawned on her that Merida wasn't going to budge. "But…it was going to be my Christmas gift to both of you guys…"
She glanced back and forth between Merida and Anna, who was sitting next to her. The strawberry blonde gave her a sympathetic look and shrugged.
Merida let out a long, exasperated groan, collapsing onto the table in an explosion of red curls. "Punzie, Ah love yeh, but what on this good green earth made yeh think Ah'd want a manicure?"
"She does have a point," Jack admitted. Rapunzel shot him a quick steamy glare before going back to crestfallenly staring at the plastic of the cafeteria table.
"But you'd look so pretty!" she insisted, giving Merida a pleading look.
The Scottish girl lifted her head, and her pale blue eyes lit up with the same fire they always did when yet another thing had managed to set off her incredibly short temper.
"Ah've got better things tae do than look pretty, Rapunzel!" she snapped. "Maybe the two of yeh want tae spend hours and hours doing yer frivolous girly nonsense, but Ah'd rather spend mah time doing something that actually matters!"
Rapunzel visibly winced, scooting away from Merida. The slightest hint of guilt darted over the redhead's face, as if even she realized she went too far. She let out a resigned sigh.
"Ah'm sorry. Ah know yeh meant well. But yeh know everyone on the archery team's gaena stare and pester me about it if Ah show up in glittery nail polish. Besides…" She made a face. "My mum would have a field day. 'Ooooh, Merida, Ah'm so proud! Yer finally acting like a lady!'" Jack couldn't help but smirk at the high-pitched, squeaky voice she used to imitate her mother.
"And that's the last thing Ah want," she added vehemently.
"Well, fair enough." Rapunzel nodded, although she still had the demeanor of a recently-kicked puppy. "I…guess I didn't think that one through."
"Don't yeh worry too much on it, lass!" Merida waved a hand dismissively, giving her friend a lighthearted grin. "Ah s'pose it's the thought that counts. But Ah'm afraid Ah still have tae tell yeh no."
Rapunzel gave her one last pleading look. "Are you sure? I mean, you could always get some color that's subtle enough so that your team won't notice…or your mum…"
Merida shook her head. "Sorry. Not happening, Punz."
"It's just…" Rapunzel rubbed the back of her head uncomfortably. "I, uh…I made 3 reservations at the salon and I prepaid for 3 people…"
Merida gave her a bewildered look. "What? Why?"
"High demand to get into that place," Anna explained. "They're really good. You have to put your name on the list days in advance. You'd know that if you ever got your nails done, Merida!" Anna stuck her tongue out at the other redhead, who rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, so I called them yesterday to make a reservation for Friday," Rapunzel went on. "And I know Tooth can't make it because she's got some family thing for her grandma's birthday. Oh!" She turned to Anna. "What about Elsa?"
Anna shook her head. "Nah, she's got some ballet thingy. I'm sure she would have loved to come, though!"
Rapunzel sighed, muttering under her breath. Green eyes scanned the cafeteria, as if searching for any girl who might make a suitable replacement for Merida.
"Oh, I know!" Anna said suddenly.
Jack felt his stomach sink. Nothing could be more indicative of trouble coming than when Anna's eyes filled with mischief like that.
Rapunzel turned to her. "What?"
Anna's smirk broadened into a full-on grin. "You could just take your boyfriend!"
Jack nearly fell right out of his chair.
His cheeks grew red-hot. "What?"
Rapunzel let out a delighted gasp, eyes lighting up with sudden emerald excitement.
"Yes, yes, yes!" she nearly squealed.
She reached across the table and grabbed both his hands, pulling them toward her and leaning down to inspect his nails intently. He felt a gentle blush creep over his face at her touch, despite the fact that they'd been dating for a solid year.
Sometimes he still had to remind himself that she was actually with him now, and gone were the days when he would longingly watch her laugh on the playground as he chased her, admiring her in secret and having to be content with only being her "bestest friend ever."
And yet here he was, free to kiss her and hold her hand in the hallway and do all the other girlfriend-boyfriend things he had once written off as a hopeless fantasy. It still felt so unreal at times.
But a good kind of unreal.
"Oh, you're going to look so cute!" she gushed. "What color do you think would look good on him, Anna? Blue? Silver? French tips?"
He was rapidly yanked back to his current situation at the sound of her voice.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Punz!" His face was still burning. "Slow down!"
"Well, we do need a third person," she reminded him innocently. "And none of my other friends can make it."
Sweat pooled on his forehead as he thought of Rapunzel and Anna watching as a cheerful manicurist gleefully cleaned his cuticles and streaked his nails in all sorts of bright, flashy hues. An image that, he was sure, would stick in both girls' minds until their very deathbed.
"Yeah, but…me?"
"Come on, Jack! Pleeeeease?"
Oh no. And there were the enormous puppy-dog eyes.
Jack sighed. If anyone saw him walking around with nail polish on, he would never live it down as long as he lived.
"No can do," he decided finally, shaking his head firmly.
"Please oh please oh please oh pretty please?"
Oh no. Oh god no. How much longer could he resist that voice? Or those freaking eyes?
He closed his eyes and stuck his tongue out, putting his thumbs in his ears.
"Lalalalala! Can't hear you!"
"Pleeeeeaaaassssseeeeee?"
"Lalalalalalala! Can't hear a word you're saying, Punz!"
This went on for some time before Rapunzel let out a defeated huff. Although his eyes were still closed, Jack pictured her slinking back down into her seat.
A slight pause. Then, "Hey Jack."
A different tone of voice, this one less plaintive and more casual. Hopefully this meant they were changing the subject. Jack opened his eyes.
"Yes?"
Her face broke into a full-on smirk, a rare sight to be seen in place of her usual innocent sunshine smile.
"I triple-dog-dare you."
Oh no. Shit had just gotten serious. His girlfriend had triple-dog-dared him.
Well, she had him in a bind. He may have been able to pull through the begging and the puppy-dog eyes with a dose of exceptional willpower, but no one—no one—who was anyone backed down from a triple-dog-dare.
"All right, all right, you got me." He held up his hands in defeat, although he was looking at her admiringly. Boy his girlfriend was clever. Leave it to her to find a sneaky way to rope him into this when being cute alone didn't work.
Now all that was left was to not make an utter fool of himself.
The bell rang as soon as the three of them opened the door to the salon, causing the nearest manicurist lady's head to snap up. Jack tried to hide behind Anna and Rapunzel, but it was too late.
"Hi, Jack!" she called out. "Good to see you again!"
Anna raised a questioning eyebrow at him.
Jack laughed uncomfortably, trying to distill the quickly-gathering blood in his cheeks. "What? I take my sister over here all the time!"
"Really? You've never mentioned that before," Anna mused. Her tone was more innocently curious than skeptical, but Jack still found himself biting his lip.
Rapunzel, on the other hand, was looking at him with the biggest doe-eyes he had ever seen, hands clasped together and a giddy smile on her face. "Awww, Jack! You take your sister to get manicures? That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard!"
He should've known Rapunzel would gush about it. Nonetheless, he looked away in embarrassment.
"Well, I couldn't very well mention that," he said, with a pointed glance at Anna. "What sort of self-respecting teenage boy would be caught dead taking his 10-year-old sister to the nail salon?"
"Only the best big brother ever!" Rapunzel retorted, crossing her arms. "I don't care what anyone else says! I think it's adorable."
Jack sighed, looking over Rapunzel with her frilly lavender skirt and bright pink winter jacket trimmed with fluffy fake fur. She probably wasn't the best person to go to for advice on how to uphold one's masculinity.
"Coming from you, I'm not sure if that should make me feel better or worse."
Rapunzel glared at him. "Well, I'm your girlfriend! Does anyone else's opinion really matter?!"
Jack smirked. Man, her utter confidence in herself could be so sexy. "Eh, good point. Fuck 'em all."
Once the lady who had greeted them motioned them over, Jack found the least-threatening looking manicurist and sat down in front of her. Rapunzel had a seat next to him, eyes seeming to eagerly track his every move. His manicurist whipped out the creepy plastic color sample wheel and Rapunzel leaned over, intently hovering over his shoulder like a drone.
"Might I offer some suggestions?" she chirped.
Jack ducked away, shaking his head. "Ah ah ah! If you're gonna force me to do this with you, the least you could do would be to let me pick out my own color. Come on now!"
The manicurist looked up from the color pallet briefly to give him something of a dirty look as he mentioned Rapunzel "forcing him to do this with her." In response, he shrugged and smiled apologetically.
Rapunzel withdrew, hands raised in defeat but still smiling good-naturedly. "All right, if you already have a plan!"
Well, "plan" was a bit stronger word than what he'd use.
He scanned the color pallet, inspecting each choice keenly until his eyes fell on a shade of deep purple. His breath caught in his throat a little. He could only think of one thing.
He saw strobe lights glinting off of a diamond-studded bodice as she spun in happy circles on the dance floor, and he saw starlight catching in the splash of glitter on the soft, floral folds of her long skirt out on the balcony. He saw them looking out at the moon as she told him she loved him for the very first time. All in a dress the same color as the quickly-darkening twilight sky around them.
Yes, there was a color he wouldn't mind having on his hands for a while.
He tentatively pointed to the color. The manicurist gave him a brief questioning look, but ultimately shrugged and pulled out the purple nail polish.
Rapunzel and Anna finished before him. They were sitting in the waiting area at the front of the salon when he finally finished, excitedly examining and feeling one another's nails and giggling. Girls were truly fascinating creatures, Jack thought.
Jack slipped his hands into his hoodie pockets and walked over. Anna was showing off a flashy spring green, while Rapunzel had settled on a more understated but pretty bubblegum pink. He joined in the admiring, almost getting caught up in the two girls' enthusiasm.
"Well, what do yours look like?" Anna asked abruptly, looking at Jack.
"Yeah, show us!" Rapunzel added.
Jack's face grew hot, and he looked away. "Do I have to?" he whined.
"Oh, come on Jack!" Rapunzel said. "You can't just take a dare to get your nails done and not even show your nails to the person who dared you!"
Jack gave her a defiant look. "Well, you didn't say anything about having to show them to you!"
Rapunzel's face fell briefly as she realized the small loophole in her dare, but her eyes quickly grew hopeful again.
"Well, I know. But pleeeeeease?"
She reached out and started tugging on his arm persistently, trying to expose the vibrant colors of his hidden hand. He knew he could have done more to resist, but with a sigh he let her slowly nudge his hand out of his pocket.
As soon as she caught sight of the purple polish, she gasped.
Jack shuffled uncomfortably. "Yes, I know. I got them done in a feminine color. The scandal!" he said lightly, forcing a laugh to cover up his ever-growing nervousness.
Instead of laughing along, Rapunzel continued to gaze intently at his purple nails.
"Jack, they're beautiful," she said, voice barely above a whisper.
"Just like you!" he said lightly, pointing the other hand into a finger gun at Rapunzel as if he had just executed a bad pickup line.
She looked up at him and blushed, but to his dismay her attention was quickly back on his nails. "Aren't these gorgeous, Anna?"
Anna leaned down to scrutinize the nails before grinning at him. "Yeah, you really went all-out, pretty boy!"
"Well, you go big or you go home," Jack said, giving what he hoped looked like a very indifferent shrug.
"I knew we were going to make you look pretty!" Rapunzel squealed, throwing her arms around his neck and leaning up to kiss him. She pulled away with a dumb grin on her face, and Jack rolled his eyes.
"Punz, stoooooop."
"Well, are your nails not pretty?" she challenged. "They're fit for a princess!"
"Shut up," he mumbled, although a smile was starting to force its way through.
"I mean that as a compliment," she assured him quickly.
"I know. Shut up."
"Well, the worst is over now!" Anna said brightly, seemingly in an attempt to cheer him up. "And good on you for even taking that dare. That takes some serious balls!"
"Well, I wasn't about to be called 'chicken' for the rest of my life," Jack pointed out. "I didn't really have a choice."
"Well, dare or no dare, you look beautiful," Rapunzel declared.
She slipped into her pink jacket, continuing to chat with Anna as they trotted over to the front door. Jack stole back a few paces behind them, slithering his hand surreptitiously into the candy jar and scooping out an enormous handful before running to join them.
"You know, I think you can take those off now. I doubt Rapunzel wanted you to keep them on all break."
Jack paused his video games to look up to where his sister was standing in the doorway, her arms crossed and her eyebrows raised inquisitively.
"Well, she never really mentioned when the dare expired," he admitted. "So I assumed she meant 'keep them on until further notice.'"
Emma smirked. "Wow, your girlfriend is evil. If I had a boyfriend, I'd never make him get a manicure with me!"
"She didn't make me," Jack retorted. "It was a dare."
Emma snickered. "You know you can just say no to a dare, right?"
"It was a triple-dog-dare! You can't say no to those!"
She snorted dismissively. "Yeah-huh!"
He raised an eyebrow at her. "What about that time you broke your leg because Sam triple-dog-dared you to climb to the top of the jungle gym and you wouldn't back down?"
Emma bristled, giving him a steamy look.
"That was different! I could have backed down if I'd wanted to. I only went through with it because I wanted to impress him!"
Jack smirked. "Sure. Had nothing to do with not wanting everyone on the playground giving you a hard time for wimping out."
"No," she retorted, sticking her lip out in a pout. "I'm very selective about what dares to take and what ones are too dumb to bother with. Regardless if it's a single-dog, double-dog, triple-dog, whatever."
"Huh. So the one that got you on crutches for 2 months wasn't one of the ones that was 'too dumb to bother with.' Intriguing selection system."
She rolled her eyes in the overly-dramatic fashion that only Emma was capable of. "I told you already, dummy, I could have said no but I had to impress Sam. I had ulterior boy motives that had nothing to do with how stupid the dare was. And what would you need to impress Rapunzel for?" she added. "You're already dating her."
"Well, you never know," Jack said with a shrug. "She's an artist, after all. She could leave me for the man with the fanciest nail art on the block if I don't up my game."
Emma laughed briefly before her expression slipped into a mixture of concern and annoyance. "Okay, but seriously loser, I have nail polish remover in my room if you want to get rid of it. What Rapunzel doesn't know won't hurt her."
"Eh, too much trouble." Jack shrugged, trying to look as unconcerned as possible. "Rubbing that stuff all over my hands and having to scrape everything off sounds a bit too much like work. And, if I recall, I'm fairly certain I'm not allowed to have any of that over the holidays or I'll asphyxiate." He smirked, and Emma rolled her eyes again.
"Besides, there's no need," he went on. "School's out. And who needs to go outside and actually see people when you can play video games all break? I have everything I need right here!" He grinned, holding up his controller for emphasis.
She sighed. "I don't think talking to NPCs counts as having a social life, Jack."
"You can't prove that." He stuck his tongue out at her.
"So you don't mind the relatives seeing it at Christmas?"
"What, grandma and grandpa?" Jack snorted. "You see, Emma, this is a question of reputation. If the concern here is word spreading around my peers about the sissy with the purple nails, then old folk pose no threat. You know no matter what colors I have on my hands, they're going to pinch my cheek and tell me I've grown so much and ask me about 'that lovely Ramona girl I'm dating.'"
Emma shrugged. "Okay, suit yourself. But I'm going to leave my nail polish remover out in the hallway in case you change your mind."
"Thank you, very thoughtful of you." He offered his sister a brief, polite nod before frowning and making a shooing motion. "Now go away, I'm about to beat this level."
Her face broke into a full-on smirk, and Jack heaved an inward groan. It was a smirk that matched his own, the signature Overland smirk that hinted there were shenanigans soon to come.
"Oh, I think I'll stay riiiiiiight here," she singsonged, prancing over and sitting on the couch next to him. "Oh, wow, look at that interesting spot on the wall over there! I think I'm gonna talk veeeery loudly about it to you for the next 20 minutes!"
"Bye Emma, see you at dinner!" he said loudly, reaching out a hand and shoving her away. She fought against his grip, pushing back with surprising force for a 10-year-old and wrestling her way around his arm. All the while she made obnoxiously obvious comments about the dirt spot on the wall until something more interesting seemed to catch her attention.
The struggle continued, but he felt her grab his hand and pull it toward her.
"Is that…glitter?"
"BYE EMMA!" He managed to get her away in one final shove. He nearly threw the controller at her as she darted out of the room, giggling maniacally the whole way.
"Wow, that kid is creepy as fuck. I wouldn't take him if I were them."
The sounds of the laptop were briefly stifled as Jack took another chip from the bag and popped it into his mouth with a loud crunch.
Earlier that day, Rapunzel had texted him declaring that she was coming over for an art marathon, bringing pencils, about 50 sheets of paper, and, at Jack's insistence, the scented markers that were a staple in every elementary school classroom ("No, Rapunzel, I'm sure smelling them doesn't give you cancer!"). She had showed up at his door with all of these things stacked neatly in a basket, with a pan of cupcakes poking out of the top.
Now Jack was a simple man, and would have been more than happy to have his snacking needs met by merely an enormous bag of Doritos and a bowl of skittles. However, if his girlfriend was going to use her confectionary prowess to whip him up a sugar fix, who was he to refuse? Not that he figured he even could—Rapunzel went all-out when she baked. These particular cupcakes were Nutella-flavored (how she managed to pull that off was beyond him), capped with a cone of rippled white icing dusted pink and blue in a way that reminded him of a unicorn Frappuccino.
Initially Jack joined in on drawing extravaganza, but as usual, he came to the realization that he still could not draw so much as a reasonably straight line without using a ruler. He opted to sit out and put some anime on, leaving Rapunzel responsible for filling the paper with fruit-smelling, Lisa Frank-esque artwork. His bedroom floor ended up completely littered with bright markers and sheets of printer paper, but Jack didn't mind. It made him feel like he was in a kindergarten classroom again, without a care in the world except making arts and crafts.
Well, that was a lie. As a kindergartener, he did have another main care in the world in that Rapunzel's arts and crafts were always managing to completely dwarf his. It was amazing how little had changed over 12 years, although he found that the older he got, the less he minded that she was better.
Besides, he didn't need to do art. He was perfectly content to lay on his stomach eating chips and providing a half-snarky half-confused commentary on the particularly strange anime he was watching.
"What, the kid has fangs, too? How do none of them notice this?! I swear, it's like the kids in horror movies singing spooky nursery rhymes with their eyes glowing and no one thinks anything is wrong! I mean, I'd be calling the cops or something."
A few minutes passed before Jack had occasion to comment again.
"Ah, the Grim Reaper riding on a Ferris wheel. Just when you think you've seen it all," he commented absentmindedly, scooping up a handful of skittles and popping them into his mouth.
Rapunzel looked up briefly at him to raise an eyebrow before shrugging and going back to her drawing. "Well, I suppose the bringer of death gets to have a day off, too."
Jack squinted as he kept watching. "This show is weird. I feel like it would be pretty trippy to watch high, though. Yo, Zel!" He turned to his girlfriend and gestured with his head. "Pass me some of those magic markers!"
"Jack!" She glared at him, and he snickered. "You are not going on a drug trip using my art supplies."
"I might have to if this gets any weirder. I don't know if I can handle this plot sober."
He turned back to his laptop and started abruptly sputtering in disbelief before breaking out laughing. "Oh—oh yes, I too like to vomit eyeballs on people when they don't do what I want."
"Do I even want to know?" she asked, pushing aside a finished sketch of a couple Dalmatians with multicolored spots and a winged lime green kitten. Rapunzel was never shy about splashing vibrant colors wherever she wanted, even when they didn't make sense.
Jack's eyes widened as he turned back to the screen. "What the fu—did the eyeballs just grow legs?"
"Okay, I have to see this." Rapunzel pushed aside the picture she was currently working on—looking to be a pink-and-purple unicorn with floral designs in the background—and scooted over to the laptop to press up against Jack. He glanced over to see her grimacing.
"That's…pretty gross."
Their hands slid into the bag of chips at the same moment and bumped. Rapunzel turned and smiled at him, grabbing his hand and entwining her fingers with his in among the Dorito dust.
Jack gasped dramatically, clutching his free hand to his heart. "What's this? Holding my hand in a bag of Doritos? And they say romance is dead!"
She laughed and pulled his hand out of the bag, still holding on to it tightly. She glanced down at it, and suddenly her eyes narrowed in confusion.
"Jack, are you…still wearing that nail polish?"
He froze to the spot.
Shit.
Apparently when making plans to hang out with his girlfriend all day he had completely forgotten that she might, at some point, spot the purple manicure still going strong from a week and a half ago.
"Oh…damn…I didn't realize I was getting that much cupcake icing on my hands!" he said, laughing uncomfortably as he yanked his hand away.
Rapunzel gave him an annoyed look. "Jack…the cupcake icing isn't even purple."
"Well…you…didn't specify when exactly you wanted me to take them off?" He grinned hopefully, trying as hard as he could to sell it.
Rapunzel looked slightly guilty. "Oh, well, I didn't want to embarrass you too much," she said. "I figured you didn't really want anyone to see you with them, so I expected you to take the polish off in a couple days or so."
"Right…I…uh…" Think of something, think of something, think of something! "It just seemed like way too much work to take time out of my day to scrub all this stuff off. And…ah…no experience with nail polish remover, so I don't really know how to work it. Dumb, I know."
Beads of sweat were practically running down his face now as he shuffled uncomfortably on the wood floor.
"You could have asked me to do it for you," Rapunzel pointed out. "Or Emma."
Damn it, she had a good point. Jack hated it when that happened.
He bit his lip, starting to panic slightly as he realized he was quickly running out of explanations.
His eyes flitted desperately around his room, looking for any possible thing that could help to formulate another excuse. His gaze settled at last on his bedroom window, sticklike trees in the neighbor's yard black silhouettes against the quickly darkening sky. He smiled slyly as he remembered the reason he had chosen his color in the first place.
Well, time to prove romance really isn't dead.
"It's just…um…I picked that color because it reminded me of you in your prom dress and I ended up keeping it on because I wanted to think about you every time I looked down at it. I wanted to keep something to constantly remind me of that night. You told me you loved me, and well…it was the best night of my life."
She gave him a look warm enough to make him melt, clutching her hands to her heart. "Awwww, Jack! You're too much!"
She leaned over and wrapped in a tight hug, and Jack relaxed into her arms, grinning stupidly.
Mission Prove Romance Isn't Dead was a success! Crisis averted!
She pulled away, giving him a shrewd smile. Jack shuffled uncomfortably. This couldn't be good.
"But come on, that's way too corny to actually be true. You wouldn't keep your polish on that long just because of me. Jack, be honest with me…do you like wearing nail polish?"
Her tone was light and teasing, but he bristled nonetheless.
"No, of course not!" he snapped. "That shit's for girls!" He let out an exaggerated groan, rolling his eyes. "Come on, it was a dare. You roped me into it."
She put her hands up, looking slightly guilty. "All right, all right!"
"I…" He fiddled with one of the strings on his hoodie nervously. "I meant what I said. You looked so beautiful in that dress, and having something to…to remind me of that was like carrying a little piece of you around with me. And I wanted to keep that for as long as I could. If that doesn't sound creepy," he added quickly.
"Not at all, Jackson." She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "I think that's really sweet. I just didn't know you were that into me. I thought that would be too good to be true!" She giggled, and he gave her a quick kiss.
"You really don't give yourself enough credit, because you're always underestimating how into you I am."
"I'm glad there's not actually a 'boyfriend of the year' competition, because you'd blow all of them away before the event even began!"
Finally content with his explanation, Rapunzel scooted away from the laptop and returned to her drawing. Jack turned back to the screen, shoulders slumping in relief. The danger was finally past, it seemed.
He turned his attention back to his computer and almost immediately let out a snort of disbelief. "Did he just…did his hair just spontaneously grow 7 feet and tie him to those poles?!"
Rapunzel lifted her head to give him a brief surprised look before returning to her picture. "Wow. And I thought my hair grew fast!"
There was a loud snap and Rapunzel cursed under her breath. Jack turned away from the grim reaper on the screen, back for more shenanigans, to look at her. "What's wrong?"
"I broke my pencil," she muttered. "That was my last sharp one, too!"
"Oh, there should be more in my dresser," he said, pointing at the chest of drawers by his bed. "I keep my old school supplies in the second drawer."
As she stood up and started walking over to his dresser, his eyes widened and he was seized by an abrupt wave of panic. Did I accidentally just say "second drawer?" God…what the hell was I thinking?
"No, Rapunzel, wrong drawer!" he called out, whipping his head around. "Third drawer, third drawer, third drawer!"
Too late. The second drawer had already started to squeak open, and Rapunzel frowned.
"Jack…what's this?"
Jack stiffened. "That's my sister's," he said quickly.
"So…why is it in your dresser, then?"
"She…wanted me to hold onto it for safekeeping," he said, laughing anxiously. "She's pretty protective over it."
Rapunzel squinted down into the drawer. "This must be some expensive nail polish if Emma's worried someone's going to break into her room and steal it."
"Yeah, it always seemed kind of paranoid to me." Jack flexed an arm muscle and grinned. "But hey, if you need someone who will beat up anyone who dares lay a finger on my sis's nail polish collection, Jack Overland-Frost's the man for the job! Besides, if robbers come nail polish-hunting, the teenage boy's room is the last place they'll ever look."
Rapunzel picked up a bottle of bright pink polish and inspected it. "But…this doesn't look that fancy. It just looks like regular polish. Why would someone steal this from her room? Or…or break into someone's house to take nail polish in the first place?"
Jack shrugged. "Again, she's paranoid. But what are big brothers for if not to protect their little sister's extensive nail polish collections with their lives?"
Rapunzel smiled at him, and Jack internally gave himself a pat on the back. She seemed to be buying it. Good save, Jack! Second time this afternoon!
He tensed as she continued to look over the colored bottles, looking more and more uncertain.
"But…Emma's never shown that much interest in painting her nails, and I've known her for years," she muttered, half to herself. "Why would she suddenly care that much about her nail polish being stolen?" She looked right at Jack, and he bit his lip.
Something seemed to click in her mind, and Jack felt his stomach twist itself in knots.
"Jack…" She smiled cheekily. "Me and my prom dress weren't the reason you kept that manicure on, was it?"
He frowned at her. "What are you talking about?"
"Do you like painting your nails?" Her tone was teasing, but her green eyes had a soft light in them.
He bristled. "What? N—no, why would you think that?! I already told you, those bottles are my sister's!"
"But I've barely ever seen her with her nails done," she pointed out lightly. "Which is why it's also kind of strange that you apparently 'take her to the nail salon' all the time. I didn't want to say anything in front of Anna, but I wasn't really sure about it then, too. Besides…"
She started shuffling through the bottles again, inspecting every color with meticulous precision. "If I'm remembering right, blue is one of your favorite colors, not Emma's. She's told me plenty of times that she thinks blue is boring and pink and orange are a lot better. So why is there so much blue in here?"
She looked at him skeptically, a small smirk on her face, and he looked away. Damn it, why did she have to be so smart? She could be a police detective, with the way she was able to so effortlessly slide underneath the surface and see right through any façade he tried to put up. She was far too good at pulling out anything he thought he was hiding.
"Rapunzel, why don't you believe me?" he whined, in a last-ditch effort to invoke the pity card. "I—I've told you already it's Emma's! She likes blue better now. You have to believe me, I'm not a big sissy!"
"Jack…" Rapunzel sighed, walking over to him and crouching down. She put a hand on his shoulder. "I was just teasing you. If you say it's Emma's, then it's Emma's. I trust you. But if it is yours…"
He wouldn't meet her eyes. She reached out and put her other hand on his cheek, turning his face toward her and brushing a loose strand of spiky white hair out of his eyes.
"That's nothing to be ashamed of," she went on. "Everyone can enjoy what they want to, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. And I'm not going to love you any less because of it."
His entire body started to burn with embarrassment as he realized there wasn't much point in trying to hide the truth any longer. Even if he kept insisting it was Emma's, even if she told him she believed him, he knew that she was smart enough to figure out what was really going on. Even if she didn't say anything about it.
"But only girls are allowed to like this stuff…"
Rapunzel frowned, crossing her arms. "Says who? What, are the nail police going to kick down your door and arrest you because you dared to want nice-looking nails and you're a boy? No! You can do whatever you want, whether it's supposedly 'meant for girls' or not. Whoever made up that arbitrary list of what boys are allowed to like and what girls are allowed to like is an idiot, anyway."
Jack let out a long, defeated sigh. "But…if people found out, they'd laugh at me…"
"Well, then they're stupid," Rapunzel declared. "There's nothing bad or shameful about wanting to have pretty nails. Everyone should be able to do whatever they enjoy and whatever makes them feel good about themselves without having to worry about being judged by self-righteous people. Anyone who would make fun of you for painting your nails is just jealous that their own nails won't ever be that beautiful!"
She reached out and grabbed his hand, bringing it up to her face to get a closer look at it.
"I meant what I said, you know," she murmured. "About your nails looking beautiful. I wasn't being sarcastic. You look gorgeous with them."
He felt his cheeks start to grow hot. "Zellie…stop it…"
She stuck out her lip in a pout. "No!" she said stubbornly. "My boyfriend's nails are gorgeous and I'm damn well going to say it! No one can convince me otherwise."
Jack ran a hand through his hair, grinning nervously. "You're, uh…you're a lot more okay with this than I thought you would be."
Rapunzel glared at him. "If you think I'm shallow enough to judge you for doing some harmless thing you think is fun, then you must have a pretty low opinion of me."
"Yeah, but…as soon as a dude likes anything girly, he's a wimp or a pussy or something. And no one takes him seriously. Or he's gay, and he gets picked on for that. There's no in between."
"That's because people are stupid and they lash out at anything they're not familiar with," Rapunzel murmured. "They're so established in these idea of 'boy and girl' roles that anything not fitting into that freaks them out. But those roles were dumb and pointless to begin with, and anyone should be free to be whatever kind of person they want to be and like whatever they want if no one gets hurt by it. Besides, if you spend your whole life being scared of anything new…well, you're going to have kind of an empty and boring life, don't you think? You can only experience so much staying in the realm of what you know."
For the first time since she had cracked the drawer open, Jack began to smile. He relaxed, feeling all of his earlier panic and tension drain away.
"Th—thanks, Punz. It's so hard sometimes, doing this and liking it but knowing what people would say if they found out. At least you're okay with it."
"Okay with it?" Rapunzel laughed lightly. "Jack, I think it's great! It's awesome that you have that kind of way to express yourself. And here I was thinking I was the more artistic one," she teased.
She ruffled his hair, and he smiled shyly.
"Just don't…tell anyone, okay?" he mumbled. "I know it's not really something to be ashamed of in and of itself, but it still freaks me out to think of how people would react. I'd rather no one know. Hell, I'd never hear the end of it if Emma found out!" He laughed uneasily and then grimaced.
Rapunzel nodded earnestly. "You have my word. I won't tell anyone. Pinky-swear?" She reached her pinky out, and he shook it with a grin.
"But I have a request," she said.
"Oh?" He raised his eyebrows at her.
Slowly, she broke into an enormous beam. "Can I do nail art on you sometime?"
He gawked at her, blinking in surprise several times. "Wha—?"
"Pleeeeease?" she begged. "I've been practicing a lot and I think I've gotten pretty decent. Besides, you'd look so cute!" She ruffled his hair again, and he rolled his eyes.
"Well…sure, if you want, but you know I'd have to wash it off as soon as I went out anywhere reasonably public."
"That's all right. I'll just take pictures! No one will know they're your hands," she added at his alarmed expression.
"Well…if you're okay with them not lasting very long…" He smiled slowly. "I'd like that. I'd like that a lot."
"Oh, Jack!" She leaned forward and gave him a tight hug. "We're going to make you the most handsome guy in the school!"
Jack's cheeks grew bright pink. After a second, he hugged her back. "Th—thank you, I look forward to it."
"And now we can talk about nail polish!" she squealed, pulling away and giving him a wicked grin. "All your favorite colors, what color combinations look the best, all that. I don't just have to ask Anna anymore!"
Jack blushed again, but he nodded and smiled shyly. "Y—yeah, I guess we can now, can't we?"
"But there's one thing I don't get." She pulled away and frowned. "If you secretly like painting your nails…why did you resist so much when I tried to get you to come to the salon with me?"
"Well, I mean…" He rubbed the back of his head. "I couldn't have anyone guessing that I secretly liked it, now could I?" He smiled mischievously. "I'm in the theater department, Punz! And what good is being an actor if you can't use it to put on a fake persona so no one ever discovers your guilty pleasures?"
Rapunzel shrugged. "Good point."
Jack grimaced. "Imagine the look on Merida's face if she ever found out…"
"Well, I'd smack some sense into her if she had anything bad to say about it!" she declared, crossing her arms. Her tone softened slightly. "In any case, I'm glad you felt like you could tell me. You know I'll never judge you for it. I think it's great!"
His entire body warmed as he looked at her, feeling completely safe and secure in himself with her arms wrapped loosely around him. What had he ever done to deserve her, honestly?
"And that's why I love you."
He pulled her in for a tight kiss, and she crushed herself affectionately against him. For a few moments, there was nothing in the universe but two of them. The air around them was still and quiet, the silence broken only by angry Japanese screams coming from Jack's laptop.
Rapunzel was the first to pull away, smiling broadly. She picked up his hand and started scrutinizing it excitedly, just as she had done in the school cafeteria that fateful day with Anna and Merida what felt like an eternity ago.
"Oh, I can't wait to see all those colors on you!" she gushed. "We could try patterns, like pink and green stripes, or maybe dark blue with little yellow stars! Oh, that'd look so pretty! Or some leaves maybe, or little suns, or…oh! Pink and purple swirls! Or maybe light blue with white snowflakes?"
Jack chuckled. "All right, all right, don't get too ahead of yourself. But I'm looking forward to whatever you come up with, Zellie."
"I'm going to come up with the best design," she declared. "I'm going to come up with something that makes everyone—wait a minute, the grim reaper was just a floating head and arms the whole time?!"
Her eyes popped onto the screen, and Jack followed her gaze.
"Yep, definitely going to have to watch this high at some point. It's either going to be the best or the worst experience of my life."
He reached for the light pink marker, but Rapunzel was too quick. She blocked his hand with one arm and snatched up the marker with the other.
"Oh, no you don't! I need this to make works of art, thank you very much!"
They tussled for it for a bit before Jack finally gave up, letting his girlfriend have it with a triumphant smirk. As he watched her eagerly set to work coloring in her unicorn, he couldn't find it in him to be that dismayed.
"Hey, Punz?"
She looked up. "Yeah?"
"Thanks for triple-dog-daring me to get my nails done. I was kind of embarrassed about it at first, but, uh…it was nice to have an excuse to…well…wear nail paint in public like that. I mean, you had no idea, but it was so nice to not have to be secretive about it for once."
"You're very welcome!" Rapunzel's lips curved up into a cunning grin. "Would you like me to eventually find reason to dare you to get a manicure again? So you'll get another pretty set of nails to wear around everyone completely against your will?"
He grinned right back. "I think I would. The more brutal, inescapable triple-dog-dares, the better."
"That can certainly be arranged."
"Then the deal is done. Thank you Sunshine, your assistance is thoroughly appreciated."
Rapunzel gave him one last sly smile before returning her attention to her drawing.
"Anytime, anytime."
I actually wrote this months ago and then forgot to submit it for a long time whoops
Yooooo guess what ship I'm writing again! This was actually a request for a friend…usually I don't take requests, since I already have an actual shitton of my own ideas for fanfics that I need to write, but the prompt sounded like it would make for a fun one-shot (basically "wouldn't it be funny if Rapunzel dared Jack to get a manicure and he turned out to secretly paint his nails anyway?") that would be a nice little submission to keep my page active while I work on my longer stories XD Besides, I haven't written any Jackunzel in FOREVER. Not since…Jackunzel Week 2016? Damn, that long? O_o I think I intended to do some submissions for Jackunzel month this year, but I didn't really have time. Well, in any case, I have neglected my poor barefoot OTP while singing the praises for my other less-well-known OTP D: I'm sorry Jackunzel! I'll try to make up for that, especially considering less and less people seem to be writing Jackunzel these days.
I was originally going to have Jack and Rapunzel just be friends in this and have there be romantic tension building up to them getting together at the end, but then I decided for simplicity's sake to have them already be dating. That way, I could focus most of the story on the manicures and Jack's little "secret."
I'm headcanoning that even though Jack and Emma are really close and care about each other deeply, Emma absolutely LOVES purposely annoying him and can be 1000x more obnoxious than the average younger sister if she puts her mind to it. But Jack is secretly proud of her whenever she irritates or pranks him because it means he's rubbing off on her XD "I have taught you well, young padawan."
I'm also headcanoning that Rapunzel has pinterest-level baking skills and bakes a lot in her spare time. We saw her doing it a lot in the tower, after all! She'll also occasionally try to whip up something pinterest-y and it'll be a complete disaster, but that's a topic for another fanfic XD Also, who remembers scented markers from elementary school art class? Because I DO! Whether or not smelling those things repeatedly during my childhood will give me cancer is TBD.
Ultimate relationship goals is holding hands in a bag of doritos while watching anime. If you're more than a year in and you haven't reached that point, you gotta break up with bae. I'm sorry, I don't make the rules.