Okay, I should be working on Among The Stars. Actually, I was working on chapter three (and it's coming along). But then I went looking for Jackunzel videos, and I found one to the song Drive By by Train, and this idea just came to me and I had to write it!
Dedicated to Eva Marvex, who has listened to all my whining the last few days, both about this story and some personal things.
There For You
I didn't leave you 'cause I was all through
Oh I was overwhelmed, and frankly scared as hell
Because I really fell for you
Jackson Overland Frost knew he had made some really stupid, stupid mistakes in his life.
Not listening to his mom too many times to count, the consequences carrying in intensity. Not putting enough effort into school; failing his first driver's test because he had been too confident to study; totaling his car when he finally did get one; barely passing high school; dropping out of college. The list went on and on, really.
Yeah. He had made some really stupid mistakes. From time to time they came back to haunt him.
Some could be fixed.
Others couldn't.
"Ye're really back in school?"
Jack didn't glance over his shoulder, instead focusing on the Frappuccino he was making. He was tired of Merida complaining about nonexistent problems with her drink. His manager probably wouldn't allow another free replacement, either.
"You want proof? There's the parking sticker on my windshield," he said.
Merida made a sound that sounded like "huh".
When the blender was going (with just the right about of ice so it wouldn't be too thick or too thin for her) he risked a glance over his shoulder. He was half waiting for some jibe at his intelligence.
But when he looked, he saw she was looking absently out the front window, one hand braced on the counter. She seemed to be deep in thought – which would explain her lack of comeback.
He expected her to snap out of it by the time he had her frap finished... but she was still silent as he put the whipped cream on the beverage. Her only reaction when he snapped the lid on was that her eyes narrowed.
Jack really wasn't sure if he and Merida were friends (never mind what Facebook said). She was dating his best friend, which probably gave her honorary friend status. But he was also her favorite verbal pin cushion. He couldn't blame her – he knew the reason harkened back to his biggest mistake. Which meant he couldn't fight back.
He slid the grade frap across the faux marble counter of the Starbucks where he worked.
She still didn't look at him.
Jack cocked his head to the side, looking at the fiery Scottish girl. "You okay?"
Maybe they were friends – when he wasn't being an idiot.
Hand still braced on the counter, Merida finally looked over at him. "Ya ain't heard the news, have ye?"
"What news? Hiccup finally proposed?"
He glanced at her left hand to make sure he hadn't missed an engagement ring – though he knew it wouldn't be there. Hiccup was still finalizing the design, and he wouldn't propose until several hours of stressing on Jack's couch.
Merida rolled her eyes. "No, Frost. Not yet." She paused. "He's thinkin' 'about it, right? I mean, we talk about it. But there's been no sign..."
Jack ducked his head to hide the laughter he was trying and failing to bite back.
Those two were so cute it might be the death of him. It had taken them four years of high school for them to actually admit they liked each other (though even a blind man could have seen it), and now they were both in their last year of college. They still lived in different houses, and Jack knew there had never been more than a few chaste kisses between them.
He would heave a sigh of relief when they just got married. Maybe then their nervous insecurity wouldn't be so amusing.
The laugh made it through his lips, and grew stronger until he had to brace both his hands on the counter so he wouldn't fall over.
Merida smacked his shoulder – hard.
"Fine. Then I ain't gonna tell ya!"
Jack was still laughing. "Tell me what?"
Merida glared at him for a couple minutes, sipping at the sugary drink... then shook her head. "Nope."
She turned on her heel walking out, her messy red curls bouncing with each step she took.
"Oh, come on, Mer," he called. "Tell me what?"
The only response was the chime of the door sensor as she pushed the door open and stepped out without a backward glance, or any acknowledgment that he had spoken.
But when he glanced out a side window by chance, he did see her checking the student parking sticker on the windshield of his blue Honda Accord.
Shaking his head, he tossed the blender into the sink and turned on the water to rinse out the remnants of Frappuccino.
Really, why would he lie? He was actually getting really tired of working at Starbucks. And at twenty-one, his regrets were starting to eat away at him. Might as well fix the ones he could.
Though there were some that could probably never be fixed.
Against his will, memories of sitting on the grass outside Burgess High School after school in the spring came rushing back. Hiccup and Merida sitting close enough to each other that their mutual crush was painfully obvious, but far enough they couldn't see it. His arm around small shoulders, gold hair pressed against his cheek.
Yeah. Merida was right to treat him the way she did.
The chime went off again as a couple high school girls walked in – regulars. He glanced at the clock on the register. Two-fifty-five, the start of the after school rush.
Shaking away memories that just hurt, he went over to the register, wondering when his coworker was going to wrap up a fifteen minute break that had already passed the twenty-five minute mark.
He didn't pay attention as the girls batted their eyelashes, voices turning sickeningly sweet as they tried to flirt. He needed a job where he wouldn't have to spend so much time around high school girls.
Normally he avoided the afternoon shift – the tips were terrible, too. And after four years, he had enough seniority to pick and choose his shifts. But he had been called in when the girl who normally took his shift had taken the day off for a lecture at the college.
When the girls finally gave up trying to get his attention, while he was making their drinks, they returned to animated chatter about whatever teenage girls talked about.
In high school, his female friends had talked about archery, painting, gardening and horseback riding. Their conversations about clothes and make up had been few and far between. If they talked about boys, it was never around him.
So, basically, they hadn't been teenage girls – they had been girls that were teenagers. There was a big difference.
Today, though, he was actually able to make out what these girls were talking about.
The fair.
It wasn't hard, since it was what everyone was talking about. Why, Jack had no idea. Burgess's annual street fair was the biggest event in town. It was in May, just as the weather started heating up, but before it was so much no one wanted to go outside.
Outside, preparations were already starting for tomorrow's festivities. Businesses had decorated their windows. The white and green banner hung over first avenue, announcing the dates as if it wasn't posted on every bulletin board in town.
It would start Friday afternoon and go until the small hours of Monday morning. The whole town buzzed with excitement about the rides being set up on the fairgrounds on the edge of town, the tents being set up in the park, the sales in every business, the chalk drawing scattered across the sidewalks.
The girls – high school and college – couldn't care less about any of that. All they cared about was the street dance. It was a precursor to prom, somehow. They girls on the other side of the counter, and the two that had joined them while he made their drinks, were chattering about who was going with who, what they were wearing...
A few years ago, Jack would have just rolled his eyes about how petty they were.
Now, he was struggling not to crush the plastic cup in his hand as he poured in caramel Frappuccino.
#
"Are ye comin' tonight?" Merida asked, as Jack slid her Fruppuccino across the counter to her the next day.
Jack gestured to the line of people waiting for their drinks, and to the ten or fifteen cups on the cold bar that waited for him to fill them. Four of his coworkers were behind the counter with him, struggling to keep up with the fair goers that were dependent on caffine and sugar to get them through the day.
The girl at the register (the same one he had covered for the day before) shot him a nasty glare for taking a moment to have a conversation when his workload was growing.
"Ya used t' love the fair," Merida reminded. She leaned her elbows on the counter, sipping her frap.
"Merida..." Hiccup whispered from beside his girlfriend.
Jack turned back to the cold bar and began mixing the milk, ice and flavored syrups. "That was before."
"Before ya were stupid, ya mean?"
Jack's hand hesitated on the head of a hazelnut syrup bottle.
He pushed down the head five times with more force than necessary when he was able to move again.
"Yeah," he said. "Before that."
"Did you tell him?" Hiccup asked.
At least, that was what Jack thought he heard just before he slammed the blender in and hit the button to turn it on. While it whirred noisily, he filled the next blender with the necessary ingredients for three caramel fraps.
He missed the whispered argument between the two red heads. He glanced back and saw a tension between them, but he couldn't make out what they were saying with the blender going right in front of him.
He quirked an eyebrow. Hiccup and Merida were one of those couples so comfortable with each other they could argue like an old married couple... then walk out holding hands like love sick kids. Jack supposed if they had that balance after nearly four years, they probably had the ability to make it for life. Not that he needed proof of that.
He returned to the counter to slid Hiccup's double chocolate chip crème frap (he really couldn't handle coffee) toward them. "Do I want to know?"
Hiccup opened his mouth as he took the cup, but Merida glared at him and he closed it.
"If you change your mind call us, and we can meet up," Hiccup said after a moment.
At least Merida didn't seem opposed to that.
But Jack shook his head. "I have homework after I get off."
"It's an open invitation," Hiccup sighed.
With a nod, Jack turned back to his work.
#
Jack hadn't bothered driving to work that day, because he knew half the streets would be shut down by the time he got off. But he hadn't realized they would be so crowded walking would be a problem.
He had moved into his current apartment just a few months ago, and he either had to walk straight through the heart of town or nearly double the trip by taking the long way around the edges. But as he was jostled by yet another group of people who refused to move aside to let him pass on the sidewalk while they milled around outside one of the many art galleries on First Avenue, he wished he had taken the long way.
That, or that the sidewalks were wider. Or people weren't so selfish.
He thought about going back to Starbucks and taking the long way... but he had just made it through the biggest knot of people, and going back seemed like a waste of time. So there was nothing left but to shoulder through.
He turned off first and onto Church Street, careful to avoid being walked into by a couple that wasn't looking where they were going, too caught up in their own conversation and the many vendors that had put tables on the sidewalks to entice passersby.
As he passed the table from the chocolate and ice cream shop, Jack was hit was the smell of sugar and various flavors, as well as the smell of lilacs in a vase set on the corner of the table to serve as a splash of color.
His taste buds were tempted, but he wasn't in the mood five to ten minutes just to talk to the girl manning the table. So he kept moving, shoving his hands in the pockets of his pants as he kept walking.
Between First Avenue and the park, two blocks were mostly empty. There was more foot traffic than there would be usually, but the lack of vendors kept people moving briskly between the two attractions.
Jack kept to the right side of the street, across from the park. Once he was passed that, he would only have to deal with the cars driving to and from the fairgrounds. But that would only be for a few blocks, and then he would be home free. Just a few more blocks.
Then he could spend his evening struggling through math homework he wouldn't be so far behind on if he hadn't dropped out of college for the better part of three years. But the more he looked at the crowd, the more content he was with his decision.
Crowds really weren't his thing.
The crowd was thin enough he started running, eyes on the street corner across from the park, when he would officially be past the fair.
"Jack!"
The called stopped him dead, and he almost stumbled at the sudden loss of momentum.
As he turned back he hoped he could take care of whatever it was quickly... but his heart dropped when he saw Jamie and Sophie Bennett running toward him across the street from the park. The street was closed, so they didn't bother looking right or left as they stepped into the street.
He wouldn't be getting home for a while.
"Hey, guys," he greeted, forcing a smile as they reached his side of the street. Normally he would be glad to see them... but not tonight.
Jack had babysat for the siblings since his junior year of high school, probably before either of them could remember. And he would be lying if he didn't regard them as surrogate siblings. And he knew they had taken to him. It was obvious in the way Sophie wrapped her small arms around his legs in a hug, grinning up at him with a gap toothed smile.
"Look, look!" she said. She pushed aside her choppy, uneven blond bangs to give him a view of her chubby face.
Jack's grin became more genuine as he took in the face paint. Not some cheesy, ill drawn attempt as making her look like an animal, or of a generic fairy or rainbow. Her face was instead covered in colorful flowers and vines that twirled around her cheeks, eyebrows and chins.
Burgess College was mostly an art school, so he knew some of the students took advantage of their skills to make a little extra money at the various fairs and celebrations the city had. Now that Jack was paying tuition, he didn't blame them in the slightest.
Jack tapped the tip of Sophie's nose with his finger, on the few spots that wasn't covered in paint. "Pretty," he said.
Sophie's grin widened and she let go of his legs to hop around excitedly. "Pretty, pretty, pretty."
She turned it into a small song as she continued to hop and dance. On her back were the small fairy wings that were her favorite dress up article, and she rarely went anywhere without it. The see-through pink fabric had torn at the top of one of the wings, revealing the wire that made up the frame, and there were a few stains. But the little girl didn't care, as long as she had her fairy wings.
"What about you?" He asked, looking at the dark blue-grey markings on Jamie's face. He had to give the artist credit for creating blue-grey, and not just going with dark blue.
Jamie shrugged. "She said they're some kinda warrior markings or something. I thought they were pretty cool."
The markings weren't just on his face, but on the back of his hands and his lower arms below the hem of his Spider-Man tshirt. Thorough, Jack thought.
Out of habit, he kept glancing at Sophie from the corner of his eye, making sure she was safe while she continued to dance around on the side walk. She paused and crouched down at the edge of one the squares of the sidewalk that had been turned into a chalk masterpiece of a lion lounging under the shade of a lush green tree.
She stared at it for a long time, her eyes wide as they roamed over the details. Her voice became hushed, but she continued to sing her makeshift song under her breath. No longer repeating what Jack had said, but now in regard to the picture. Jack already suspected Sophie would end up as an artist. Not so much because she was always drawing (she wasn't, really) but because of the way she stared fixated at any piece of art she paused. She seemed to become hypnotized by them.
"I thought you said you weren't gonna come to the fair," Jamie said, looking up at Jack curiously.
"Uh, I wasn't, actually," Jack said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I just got off work, so I was on my way home."
He said it, but knew his plan had already changed even before Jamie's face fell.
"Oh," Jamie said, looking down.
Jack grinned as he crouched down to Jamie's eyelevel, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, I'll stick around for a while. I wouldn't pass up a chance to hang out with you guys!"
"Really?" Jamie asked.
Jack nodded. "For a while. I do have homework to get to later."
He scooped Sophie up, ticking her stomach as he swung her up in the air. "What about you, Sophe? You want me to hang out with you guys?"
The young girl was laughing too hard for Jack to understand what her reply was, but it was definitely a positive.
Still carrying Sophie so she wouldn't get trampled by the crowd, Jack followed Jamie in the park, cringing at what a sucker he was for these kids. But he chastised himself that he would be out of here before the dance started – that was one thing he couldn't handle to witness. Not with all the memories associated with it.
Before Jamie could drag them off to whatever activity he wanted to do, Jack insisted on letting their mom know that they would be with him.
"We should get your face painted!" Jamie said, as he dragged Jack away by the hand that wasn't holding Sophie. "Come on, she's over here!"
Mrs. Bennett laughed as Jack was led away. On the way toward the face painter, they stopped at the booth set up by employees from Pine St Bakery, where Jack found himself groaning as he shelled out five dollars for frosted cupcakes – white with pink frosting and sprinkles for Sophie, chocolate for Jamie.
While Jack handed over five dollars (which put a dent in the tips he had gotten that day), the band in the gazebo finished tuning their instruments and plugged into the sound system. The park was filled with a song Jack vaguely recognized.
As soon as he had his three cents change, he handed one of the cupcakes to Sophie and drew her away from the florist's tent next door where she had been admiring buckets full of colorful blossoms, hopping from here to their trying to look at them all.
Her face fell as Jack led her away, but perked up as the sugary treat was offered to it.
Jack kept one of her hands firmly in his own. He had a matter of minutes before all that sugar would hit her system, and then keeping an eye on her would take most of his attention.
Jamie was divided between devouring his cupcake and calling for Jack to keep up as he led them closer to the gazebo, where the face painter was set up.
In front of the gazebo was a large brick circle free of tables and tents, which would be the main focus for the dance, though it would spill out onto the streets. The only people who would have room to move were the people right at the front, and the people so far in the back they wouldn't actually feel like dancing.
Right by the gazebo was set up a small table covered in paints, brushes, jam jars of water, washcloths covered in paint stains, and papers covered in example art. The four corners of each page were held down by stones painted bright colors, some with words written across the tops in different, elegant fonts. There were two stools for painter and customer.
A half empty bottle of SmartWater sat on the back right corner of the table, but there was no other sign of the painter.
"Aw, man, she's gone!" Jamie groaned, looking around in the hope she was close by. "She's really cool, too."
Jack glanced over the example pages full of colorful patterns and designs. There were roses, crescent moons. The flowering vine that currently adorned Sophie's face, and the markings Jamie wore. A humming bird. A small chameleon. Fireworks. Snowflakes.
The snowflakes caught his attention (if he was going to get his face painted, that was what he would choose), but then he saw another design next to it.
It was a purple sun with seven long, waving arms, and several small rays.
"Would you hold still?" she asked, laughing as she scooted closer to him on the couch.
"When did I become your personal canvas?" Jack asked, turning to give her a mock glare. His eyes looked especially at the purple paint on the tip of the brush. "Why purple? Why not blue?"
"You became my canvas when you asked me to be your girlfriend," she said. "Now be quiet and sit still."
Again she scooted closer. Before he could move away again, she slung a leg over his knees to keep him in place, but still careful to keep the position marginally innocent. She wasn't really strong enough to pin him in place, but Jack decided to just be obedient.
It wasn't that he really minded (well, part of him did, but it was a small part). But she was so much fun to tease. He loved her little huffs when she got tired of it and put him in his place.
How could he really mind when she was so close, her breath warming his cheek just before she pressed her brush to his skin, the cold paint causing him to shiver.
"It won't take me long," she whispered close to his ear. From the corner of his eye he could see her brow furrowed ever so slightly on the design she was painting. She carefully formed the circle that would be the base, then measured it out carefully so she would know where to paint the seven arms of the sun.
They fell into a warm, comfortable silence as she painted, neither needing to say anything. Occasionally her breath would shift, whispering something to herself as she worked on the design. Jack relaxed until his eyes closed, and he drifted close to falling asleep as he lost track of time. What did time matter as long as she was close?
Finally she gave a satisfied hum. "I'm done."
Jack eyes flickered open as she blew on his cheek to dry the paint. He was too relaxed to move, so he just waited. Finally she leaned forward to kiss his cheek, in the center of the sun that was her trademark.
"Now everyone knows you're mine," she said.
Jack looked over at her with a smirk. "Is that what this is about?"
She returned his smirk with equal mischief. "What else?"
Jack swallowed as he looked at the sun.
But she had left Burgess, with the specific intent of getting away from him. So it was impossible she would come back.
"There she is!" Jamie said, grabbing Jack's hand again.
Jack followed Jamie's pointed finger, heart hammering as he looked at a girl with an insanely long golden blonde braid. She was just pulling Jamie's friend Claude into the open area in front of the gazebo into a dance she had already started with some of the other children. Her smile was like a sunray while the rest of the park dimmed as the sun dipped closer to the horizon.
Jamie's other friends joined in, dancing in a circle.
Jack's heart clenched as he watched. She was dressed simply in a purple skirt, a pink tank top, and a pair of pink ballet flats. Her braid was as long as he remembered, tied off just a little above
her hips. It whipped behind her as she danced with the children.
Pippa broke out of the dance drag Jamie into the group. Jamie protested something about dancing being for girls. But eventually gave up as he was nearly pulled off his feet. Jack let go of Sophie's hand so she could join in as well.
The little girl ran straight up to the older blonde.
He tried to convince himself it wasn't her... but her braid, her smile and love of children, the purple sun design he saw flash on her right cheek as she spun. It was her.
Rapunzel Corona.
"I tried to warn you."
Jack glanced over as Hiccup came up beside him. His friend looked at him apologetically.
"You know how Merida is," the red head sighed. "Punz is her best friend, and she... she doesn't understand your side of it."
"She doesn't because my side is stupid," Jack muttered. He crossed his arms over his chest. He tried to look away - the sight of her hurt too much.
But he couldn't look away for long. Just like the moon could never escape the sun for too long, he couldn't focus on anything but her for long.
"You were grieving," Hiccup said with a shrug, rubbing the back of his neck. "We all do stupid things when we're grieving."
"Yeah." Jack rolled his eyes. It was the truth, but it was no excuse for what he had done. Leaning against a nearby lamppost, he stared at the young woman who was twirling and spinning. Once, he would have been right there with her.
He had lost the two people he loved most in a matter of months, and both losses had been his own fault. One had been an accident, as so many people tried to convince him, but the other fell completely on his shoulders.
He finally tore his eyes from Rapunzel to look at Hiccup – his friend's sympathetic expression did not help.
"Why is she here?" His voice broke, and it came out harsher than he'd intended.
Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck, not meeting Jack's eyes.
He finally opened his mouth to answer. But the song came to an end, the last chord from the guitar fading away into the evening air.
As soon as it ended, Jack heard Jamie talking excitedly, Sophie echoing him. When he looked up, Jamie had taken Rapunzel's hand and dragged her toward her table. She smiled at the boy's enthusiasm, but then she looked up.
Jack swallowed as her green eyes met his. His heart constricted as her smile fell.
"This is Jack," Jamie said. Then conspiratorially, he added: "Technically he's our babysitter, but he's really our friend. Don't tell my mom, though."
Jack barely heard him, and he doubted Rapunzel heard him. Her eyes were wide as she continued to stare at him.
"Hey, Punz," Jack murmured, his voice week. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realized he didn't have the right to use that nickname anymore.
"Jack," she whispered.
"You guys know each other?" Jamie looked between them in confusion.
Jack realized that, somehow, he had never introduced Rapunzel to his charges. He knew at some point he had mentioned that he had a girlfriend – Jamie had been stunned, and temporarily lost respect for him.
"Yeah," Jack said. He swallowed to try and dampen his suddenly dry throat. "We..."
"We went to high school together," Rapunzel said.
Jack felt as though she had punched him in the stomach... but he deserved that.
She looked down at Jamie with a smile Jack wished he could have imitated. But the muscles in his face had gone numb.
But when she looked at Jack again, and her expression fell. "Jamie said something about face painting?"
There was a heaviness in her tone, and he knew they were both recalling the same memories. He had to fight back the ghosts of a hundred kisses brushing against his cheek. The memories threatened to paralyze him.
Hiccup snorted behind his hand, and both Jack and Rapunzel shot him a mock glare, alleviating the tense moment, even if only a little.
Hiccup shrugged and turned away, hands sliding into his pockets. "I'm gonna go find Merida..."
As he slipped off, Jack looked back at Rapunzel.
"You don't have to," he whispered. "The face painting."
Rapunzel waved him to one of the stools wordlessly, though he caught a flash over determination in her eyes as she turned to her art tools.
Jack sat down carefully, watching her for any other sign of emotions. But she had learned to hide her emotions since the last time he had seen her. It was a skill he had once thought she would never be able to master, and he had barely bitten back laughter at her attempts.
From one of the jars of water she withdrew the brushes she had left to soak, wiping off excess water and left over color. She lay them out neatly, largest to smallest. As she opened the pots of face paint, Jack inhaled the sharp, plastic smell. The same as it had always been. Painfully so.
The movements were so familiar to him as he watched her. His face and arms had been her favorite canvases, and his back whenever she could get him to lay still long enough for her to make a masterpiece on his skin.
He had to close his eyes and look away as he remembered all the times she had prepared to pain him before.
But when he felt her sit on the stool across from him, he opened his eyes to see a paint coated brush already in her hands.
"Don't I get to choose my design?" he asked.
"Not this time, Jack Frost," she said. But without the playful tone she had once used when saying his full name. "Now hold still."
One of her hands touched the side of his head, in his hair, as she always had.
The brush touched his cheek and he flinched at the cold paint.
"You're a snowboarder, Jack!" She said, with more severity than he had thought she was capable of in high school. "You shouldn't be so sensitive to the cold."
"I like the cold," Jack said. "It just surprised me."
"You should be used to it," she said.
"I always forget."
He took a deep breath, bracing himself this time.
Rapunzel waited a moment, and then tried again.
The brush swiped across his cheek gently, leaving a trail of paint that he could feel. He hadn't checked what color was on the brush. But he didn't feel the familiar circle motions, so he knew it wasn't her sun.
And why would it be? He wasn't hers any more.
"Can you slouch down?" she asked, her voice a whisper. In her element with a brush in her hand, she had relaxed.
Jack complied with her request, slouching down so she could reach his cheek with greater ease.
Every time her breath fanned over his cheek, his muscles clenched.
He glanced at Jamie and Sophie, who sat in the chairs that were set up for parents to wait. They were both surprisingly still, since they should be in the middle of a sugar rush. But maybe the dancing had worn them out.
Pippa came over to talk to Jamie. Sophie watched Rapunzel, hypnotized by the motions of the brush over Jack's pale cheek.
He heard a brush clink cheerfully against the mouth of a water jar. A moment later, she was back at his cheek. The brush felt thinner.
She murmured softly to herself, singing under her breath as she went about her work. He couldn't make out the words. But it wouldn't matter if he could, really, since she was probably making something up absently as she focused on the movement of her brush.
The familiarity was killing him, making it even harder than usual to sit still.
"I'm almost done," she said. And he wondered if it was true, or if she was just saying it from habit, the way she always had when he started fidgeting.
She pulled back again for a moment, changing colors or brushes.
The motion of the brush changed from straight strokes to swirls. Jack couldn't deny his curiosity was starting to eclipse his discomfort. Only now did he realize that trusting his face to his ex-girlfriend might not have been the smartest choice... but it was Rapunzel. She may have changed but he still knew her.
She changed brushes or colors one more time, with a few simple swirling strokes.
Then he heard her sigh and lean back.
"Done."
He opened his eyes, blinking as his adjusted to the light again.
When he glanced over at Rapunzel, she held out a hand mirror.
Jack looked at the reflection of his right cheek. He had to swallow again.
She had drawn three small snowflakes, each one detailed and unique. The base was done in a light gray, with white lines to give it a three dimensional affect. Around the flakes were blue wind like swirls, once more with white detailing.
"How much do I owe you?" he asked.
She waved him off with a shake of her head as she turned to her brushes. Her braid swayed hypnotically with her movements. "It was for old times' sake."
Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out two one dollar bills and set them on her table. He saw her glance up at him, and he wanted to say something.
If he were smart, he would get on his knees and beg for her forgiveness... but he didn't think of that until Jamie had eagerly dragged him away.
The sun would be going down soon, and Jack would have to get them home before it got too dark. And there were a hundred and two things Jamie wanted to do before then.
#
Saturday, and Jack was back in Starbucks. His brain swirled with snowflakes and the numbers from math problems he had tried to finish the night before. He'd given up on that halfway through and tried to get a start on his essay for English class. But when he'd gone over his notes this morning, they were such a mess he realized he would have to start over later.
And Rapunzel... thinking about her all night was why he couldn't get his work done. And why it had taken him hours to fall asleep.
He hadn't had the heart to wash off her painting. And since he slept on his left side, it was still on his cheek. The paint had begun to flake a little. But not enough to mess up the picture.
He tried not to think about her as he worked. But he had made so many Frappuccinos, it no longer required thought. His mind could glance at the letters on the cup and register what was needed without interrupting his train of thought. Though he did wonder why he had to make so many hazelnut fraps (about 60 percent sugar-free). The fake, nutty smell of the syrup was enough to make him cringe. He couldn't imagine drinking it.
The fair was now in full swing, and would be for another thirty-six hours or so. Thankfully Jack had Sunday off and he could avoid the crowds. But until then, he was stuck making their coffee. And exhausted people who weren't getting proper nourishment didn't tip well. Not when their money was rushing out to every other vendor at the fair.
Lunchtime saw a lull in customers just before Jack started wondering how many more faps he could make before he overthrew everything on the counter and started pelting people with pieces of ice.
For lunch most people were at either restaurants or food stands for well-rounded meals - hopefully.
Only a few customers milled around, and there was only one cup left. He looked down at the letters written on the plastic, translating them easily (a cherry and dark chocolate frap). He normally ignored the name until it was time to call it out. But as his eyes went to pass it, the too familiar letters caught his attention.
Slowly, mouth immediately dry, he turned around to see Rapunzel on the other side of the counter.
"Hi, Jack," she said. She tried to smile, but the expression fell flat.
"Hey," he managed.
He turned back to the blender, taking a little more care with her drink than usual. He added a couple extra shots of cherry syrup, remembering that was how she liked it. While the ice, milk and syrup blended, he added the chocolate syrup to the inside of the cup.
Turning around to the all but empty cafe, he slid Rapunzel's drink across the counter. "Here ya go."
"Thanks." Another weak smile.
Jack rubbed the back of his neck, taking a deep breath as he tried to think. He didn't know what to say – only that he didn't want her to walk out before he had a chance to say it.
"You didn't wash it off," she said.
Jack jerked his head up at her words. "Huh?" He realized what she meant and reached up to touch the snowflakes on his cheek. "Oh, yeah."
"I wanted to do that back in high school," she said. She shrugged, looking at him with a nervous smile. "I had the idea senior year. But then..."
Jack looked away.
Taking a deep breath, Jack ran a hand through his hair. She had led right into what he knew he needed to say. He hesitated for a moment, very aware that he was at work.
But then the words came, and he didn't care.
"Rapunzel, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have broken up with you like that." He sighed. "I shouldn't have broken up with you at all. After I lost Emma, I went crazy." His voice broke, and his hand clenched around the edge of the edge of the counter. "I-"
"Don't, Jack," she cut him off. "I- I can't have this conversation. I can't."
Their eyes met for a moment, and Jack saw her eyes shine just before she turned away.
#
"What did ye do, Frost?"
Jack sighed as he collapsed onto his couch.
"Merida, did you use Hiccup's phone because you knew I wouldn't answer if it was your number?" He had considered not answering it anyway, and already wished he hadn't two lines into the conversation.
"Ye're dodgin' the question!"
After an eight hour shift, five of those hours spent beating himself up for his lack of tact, a lecture from Merida was not in the best interests of his sanity. He kicked off his shoes and propped them up on the couch, leaning his head back against the armrest.
He had never been especially tactful – he just wasn't good with words. His mother said it was because his love language was touch. While Jack barely understood what that meant (he had ducked away from the book she held out to him), it explained why he had easily expressed his affection to Rapunzel with small touches, but couldn't explain everything going on in his head after Emma had died.
"I apologized," he sighed, closing his eyes. "I tried to apologize, and I failed. I know you're not surprised."
"No, I'm not!" Merida snapped. "Ya don't apologize in the middle o' Starbucks, Jack! Not as badly as ye messed up!"
Now he knew he was in trouble, if Merida was using his first name.
"And you couldn't warn me she was in town?" Jack challenged, stress pushing his patience to the edge. "What is she doing here anyway?"
Merida growled in frustration.
"Why do I bother with ye, Frost?"
"You're dodging the question."
He heard Merida's heavy breathing on the end as she fought down her temper. It was a good thing God had blessed Hiccup with the patience to handle Merida. Jack sure didn't have it.
"Jack, do ye have any idea how much ye hurt her? After all she did for ya, she didn't deserve for ye t' push her aside like that."
"I know," Jack sighed. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the arm of the sofa. "I know!"
On the other end, Merida fell silent for several minutes.
Finally she sighed. "I gotta go. Don't do anythin' stupid, all right?"
"I'm not leaving my apartment until Monday," he sighed, rubbing his eyes. "I'll talk to you later, Red."
He hung up after Merida gave a gruff goodbye. He dropped the phone to the floor and rubbed his face again. He was exhausted, physically and emotionally.
And his heart was breaking all over again at the realization of what he had done to her, pushing the last ray of sunlight out of his life.
Or maybe his heart had never healed in the first place. He's just grown numb to the pain before she came around to melt his heart.
#
Jack was asleep when a knock on the door of his apartment woke him up. He opened one eye and looked at the clock by his bed, squinting to make out the hands that told him it was a few minutes afternoon.
What could anyone want with him at noon on Sunday? Everyone he knew was either at church or at the fair.
He closed his eyes again, taking a deep breath as he decided to go back to sleep. He couldn't imagine anything worth getting up for when he wanted a couple hours more of sleep before he had to face the next week of school and week.
There was another knock on the door, more determined this time.
Of course, why put off until tomorrow what you can do today, Jack thought as he rolled out of bed. His bare feet hit the carpeted floor, and he rubbed his bare chest as he walked toward the door of the one room apartment he called home.
"Coming," he called, around a yawn. He really hoped it wasn't Merida come to lecture him. He couldn't handle that at the moment.
But when he opened the door, it wasn't Merida, or Hiccup.
Rapunzel's eyes widened as he looked at him, gaze darting between his face and his bare chest in a way that was almost comical.
"Uh, hi," she squeaked out.
Jack found himself grinning faintly at the blush spreading over her cheeks.
Stepping back, he held the door open for her. As he did, he glanced around the living room to make sure it wasn't a mess.
"Come on in. Give me a sec and I'll get a shirt."
"A-all right."
He heard her shut the door behind her as he went down the short hall to the bedroom. His favorite dark blue hoodie lay over the back of his desk chair, so he grabbed that and pulled it on as he turned back the way he had come.
Back in the living room, he froze when he saw Rapunzel sitting on the couch, her knees pulled up to her chest.
And it hit him that she was right there, in his apartment, sitting on his couch.
It was something he had thought could only happen in a dream, and he found himself wondering if he was about to wake up.
He had to clear his throat so he could speak. The sound made her jump as she looked over at him, tearing her eyes away from the bare spot on the wall that seemed to fascinate her.
"Uh, I couldn't get Merida and Hiccup to tell me why you're back in Burgess," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't think you'd ever come back, since I was under the impression you moved to... wherever... to get away from me. Not that I blame you."
"California," she said, with a wry smile. "I was in California."
She wiped something (probably something nonexistent) off the skirt of her white and purple sundress.
"I came back because..." she sighed. "I thought I was strong enough to see you again." She looked down. "But I wasn't."
"Punz..." He wanted to reached out and brush her hair behind her ear, or any of the other small things he had once used to comfort her. But he stopped, reminding himself that wasn't his place.
Not anymore.
"I'm sorry about yesterday," she said. "For not hearing out your apology. But these past three years..."
Finally she looked up, meeting his eyes. And the pain there was a knife in his gut.
"My heart bleeds every time I think about you," she said. "I have to know why, Jack. Did you not love me anymore?"
"Of course not!" His heart ached at the thought she could have believed that. "I promised I would love you for all my life, and I meant that."
"We were eighteen, Jack," Rapunzel said. "And I wanted to believe it, but I knew... We were so young. And promises like that, at that age..."
Jack reached out and took her wrist in his hand. "Rapunzel, what did we say?"
She swallowed. "'When I make a promise, I never, ever break it. Ever.'"
"I may have been immature," he said. "But I understood what I was saying – and I didn't say it until I was sure."
She met his eyes again. "Do you still love me?"
"More than you can ever know," Jack whispered. "I've tried to forget, but I can't."
"Then why didn't you ever come find me?"
Jack let of her wrist and sat down at the other corner of the couch. Rubbing his face, he tried to think of a way to tell her. Sometimes he wished he were better with words, and now was one of those times.
"Looking back, it was really stupid. And you're not going to like it," he sighed. "But I was trying to protect you. After Emma died, you saw what I was like. If I wasn't crying, I was slamming doors or breaking things."
"You weren't that bad, Jack," Rapunzel assured, resting a hand on his arm.
But he shook his head. "I realized later how much harder I made it for my parents. I forgot that I lost a sister, but they lost a daughter.
"And you..." Without thinking, he took the hand that still lay on his arm. "You were with me every day. Considering it's you, I don't know how you were willing to sneak out every time I called you at three in the morning – let alone how you got out.
"Then I saw that report card, and how far your grades had dropped."
"It wasn't that far," Rapunzel said, though he caught the tint of a lie in her tone.
"Rapunzel, you were an A+ student, and you had thee Cs. And I realized how long it had been since I'd seen you smile." He rubbed his face. "I lived for your smile, Punz. As long as I've known you – since middle school. I looked forward to seeing your smile.
"At the darkest point, I felt like I would never get out of my depression. Textbook teenaged selfishness, apparently. But I couldn't do that to you. I figured the only way you could be happy again was if you weren't me.
"I hated breaking up with you – after everything." He rubbed his face, wishing he could go back in time and knock some sense into his eighteen year old self. "How could I have been so selfish to do that to you?"
He had called her at 3 a.m. Again. That night it had been because he's had a nightmare about losing her the way he'd lost his sister, so he had called to reassure himself that she was all right. He had just wanted to talk to her. But when she showed up at his window, he couldn't deny he was grateful for her presence.
She had probably planned just to stay until he was asleep, but she'd fallen asleep. He'd woken up with her still holding him.
After they had woken up, like an idiot, he chose that moment to break up with her.
"I'm sorry," he said again.
"Getting dumped, and then grounded... that wasn't really my week," Rapunzel admitted. Her eyes averted to the window. "My parents lost faith in me after that. They didn't believe me when I said we didn't..."
"Yeah. Merida mentioned that." He rubbed his jaw, wincing at the memory of the solid blow she had landed.
"Oh, Jack, I'm so sorry," Rapunzel said, covering his mouth as she put together the words and the motion.
But he shook his head. "Don't worry about it. You're lucky to have a friend who cares about you like that."
Leaning back against the couch, he slid his hands into the pocket of his hoodie. "I was trying to protect you from everything I was going through, and it didn't work out too well. I would give anything to get you back."
He looked at his knees, and the blue plaid design on the flannel of his pajama pants.
The apartment was silent for a few minutes.
"Do you mean that, Jack?"
He nodded.
After another moment, her warm fingers touched his cheek, turning his head so he was looking at her. Her smile was gentle.
"Then why not ask me?"
The End
Finally.
This took me three days to write. THREE DAYS!
There was going to be a "One Year Later" scene, but it just kept rambling on, and it wasn't going where I wanted it to go. Plus, I like this ending.
Let me know what you guys think!