Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO SweetasTea ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.

Hello, and welcome to Jackunzel Week! Let me start by saying I was originally 1000% NOT going to do this because I already have about 6,000,000,000 fanfictions that I want to write currently stored in my mental "fanfictions I want to write" cache and I'm already in the middle of two of them, so when I saw Jackunzel Week was coming up I was like NO, NO, I WILL NOT START ANY MORE FANFICTION BEFORE I AT LEAST FUCKING FINISH WHAT I ALREADY STARTED. But THEN I started getting this horrible thing called IDEAS and MASSIVE INSPIRATION and THOUGHTS OF "Eh, why the hell not?" So long story short, here we are with 7 gigantic multi-thousand word stories for Jackunzel Week XD Whoops. Oh well, it's been a while since I've written Jackunzel and I didn't realize how much I had a craving to write it until I started doing these.

Oh, and PLEASE, for the LOVE of god, LEAVE REVIEWS! I poured a ton of hours into my life into this thing and it would break my heart if I didn't get any feedback D: Also, like I said above, this thing almost didn't exist so hopefully that makes you more inclined to leave a nice review after you read it :D Or not nice…eh, I can handle constructive criticism. Either way, any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Word Count: 2041

AU: College AU

UAs: None

Prompt: I Don't Want To Ruin Our Friendship

"Another drink?"

The pretty blonde girl held out a red solo cup. Rapunzel shook her head, smiling politely. Jack's arm was looped loosely around her shoulder, and the last thing she wanted was to wake up tomorrow morning and have forgotten how warm and secure it felt. Normally being so close to him would send the butterflies banging against the edge of her stomach, but her mind was intoxicated enough that she was fairly relaxed.

Jack, on the other hand, seemed to have no problems with getting blackout drunk. Giggling, the brunette boy sloppily took the cup from the sorority girl. She shot Rapunzel an anxious glance. Rapunzel wrapped her arm protectively around his waist, as if to say don't worry, I'll keep him from doing anything stupid. Not that it was a sure guarantee that she wouldn't do anything stupid, but it seemed she was less likely to than Jack.

Then again, wasn't that always the case? To be fair, the first time she had met him in their 8 a.m., he had poured a Red Bull straight into his cappuccino, looked her dead in the eye, said "I'm going to die," and then proceeded to down the whole thing.

The doorbell of the sorority house rang, and the blonde girl dashed off to answer it, long ponytail swishing behind her. Jack seemed to take no notice, bringing the cup to his lips and downing the drink in one gulp. He belched loudly.

"I think I'm as wasted as the white crayon," he yelled over the music.

She grinned. "I can tell."

He turned and gave her a toothy grin. "Ya know Zellie, yer like…my best friend. Like I'm really glad I met you because you've been missing like…my whole life."

"Saaaaame!" Rapunzel drawled. "I wish we coulda been from the same state so we coulda gone to high school together. That would be so fun!"

"We coulda gone to homecoming together! And prom! And…whassat winter dance called?"

"Winter formal?"

"Yeah, that one!"

Rapunzel found herself eyeing her friend hopefully. All this talk of school dances…was he flirting with her?

"You would've worn the prettiest dress."

Rapunzel's entire body felt like it was going to melt. He was flirting!

He smirked. "But I…I woulda worn the prettiest dress of all!"

"So would I have had to wear a suit, then?" Rapunzel giggled.

"Only if ya wanted to! We could both have been pretty princesses! And won joint prom queen!"

"Nuh-uh, we can't both be the prom queen! That's not even a thing!"

They both burst into a fit of giggles, leaning all over the place in their string of chortles. Rapunzel was certain they both would have toppled over if they hadn't been holding onto each other so tightly.

Tightly…yes, Jack's grip on her shoulder had grown rather firmer, hadn't it?

Even after the laughter had died down, Jack kept looking at her with a crooked sort of smile that made Rapunzel absolutely melt. Although her heart was racing, the vodka swimming through her veins was just potent enough to convince her to take a chance.

They were both drunk. And that meant that anything that was socially taboo—anything that might otherwise threaten the close friendship they'd built up over the past several months—was a go, as long as Jack was okay with it.

"Why don't we go someplace quieter?" Rapunzel suggested.

"Good idea, Zellie. This music is hurtin' my head real bad."

She tugged him up the stairs, away from the blaring music and sweaty, dancing college students. As soon as she found an empty bedroom, she ushered him in and shut the door behind him.

Tittering drunkenly, Rapunzel shoved Jack playfully onto the bed and then gleefully bounced down beside him.

She turned to smile softly at him, although he wasn't paying attention to her. Instead, he was fidgeting with a string on his hoodie, smiling like an idiot all the while.

The childish grin adorning his face as he tied the string in knots and undid it again only confirmed what she had tried so hard to suppress all along. She liked him. She liked him so hard that her brain hurt and her skin sweat and her mouth dried up like she had strep. He was her best friend, and she liked him.

And although the thought of getting together with him made her entire being buzz with electricity and tremble with anticipation, she knew it could never happen. There was too much at stake if they ever broke up, too much at stake if he said no when she confessed how she felt. Rapunzel cringed as she imagined their easy laughs and teasing comments and playful conversations replaced with awkwardness…or worse, the hatred or indifference of heartbreak.

And the thought of losing her best friend for the sake of some stupid feelings made Rapunzel sick. It really did.

And yet here she was, just intoxicated enough to not care about ruining friendships. Besides, whatever happened in here could just be blamed on the alcohol, right?

"I think you're super hot," she said.

Jack gave her a look of mild surprise. "Whoa, really?"

"Yeah!" she bubbled. "You're cute and charming and just all-around really awesome."

"Well, you're super pretty, Punzel!"

Rapunzel's cheeks turned bright pink. "You really think so?"

"Yeah! I'd totally ask you to be my girlfriend if you weren't my best fren an' it would mega-suck if we broke up and had to stop being frens."

Now, sober Rapunzel would've let out a yelp of shock and probably fallen off of the bed after hearing this new piece of information, but drunk Rapunzel had better plans.

Before Jack could do anything, she leaned forward and pressed her mouth to his. She tried to be as cautious and timid as a drunk girl could be, not wanting to scare him off. To her delight, it wasn't long before he began to return the kiss, and their sloppy lips were working against one another in a flurry of clumsy excitement.

Before they got too into it, Rapunzel pulled away. Jack looked at her like a kicked puppy.

"Whass wrong with me, Punzel?"

She shook her head. "Nothin'. I want to make out with you."

"So why'd you stop?" he asked.

"I wanted to make sure you were cool with it. Didn't wanna force myself on ya or anythin'."

"Oh, you won't be," he assured her. "I dun mind. On a scale of 1 to 10, yer like…a 50,000."

Rapunzel would've preferred some deeper and more thought-out compliments, but who was she to be picky?

Impatience seized her, and before she knew it she had knocked her friend over and pinned him to the bed, smashing her mouth against his. The attempted passion of the kiss made it even sloppier than before, and this time Rapunzel could feel Jack's spit moistening the corners of her mouth. It was actually kind of gross, but she was too busy flipping out over the fact that she was making out with Jack Overland to really take notice.

Jack worked his tongue up between Rapunzel's teeth, and she quickly followed suit. Before long they were exploring one another's mouths. Rapunzel noted that having her tongue collide with someone else's tongue and slide along the edge of their teeth was an odd feeling. In all of her 18 years of life, she had never made out with someone. She'd kissed a couple boys in high school, sure, but never like this.

The makeout session grew more and more heated, the two of them wriggling and pressing against one another and letting out the occasional grunt. Rapunzel was sure if anyone walked past the door and heard them, they'd think they were screwing.

But hey, who cared if Rapunzel was getting a little too into it? It's not like she was going to get the chance to do this again anytime soon. That was the problem with constantly wanting to make out with your closest friend.

After what felt like hours, Rapunzel lifted her head so that it was hovering a few inches above Jack's. Her lips parted in a loud yawn.

"I'm really tired, Jack."

"I can drive ya back to tha dorms."

Rapunzel snorted with laughter. "No ya can't, you're even drunker than I am."

Jack took a second to process the fact, and looked very ashamed once he had. "Okay, thass true. We can just crash here if ya want."

"Like…right here?" Rapunzel rolled off of her friend and started to pull back the bed blankets.

"Right here," Jack confirmed, joining her under the covers.

Rapunzel was dead exhausted, but it seemed as though Jack was even more so. The brunette boy was asleep within seconds, his loud snores reverberating off of the bedroom walls. It wasn't long before a trail of drool hung out of his open mouth.

Smiling to herself, Rapunzel wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled herself up against his back, nestling her head into his shoulder. The last thing she remembered before the dingy bedroom faded around her was the steady feel of Jack's heartbeat under her hands.

When Rapunzel drifted out of her sleep, she felt her arms loosely wrapped around someone next to her. Upon recognizing Jack's mop of brown hair, she was seized by a swath of confusion. She started to panic until all of last night had come back to her. Convincing Jack to go out instead of their usual Friday night video game session, the sorority party, the drinking games, the red solo cup vodka shots, kissing Jack in the bedroom…

Wait…kissing Jack? Rapunzel beamed. Yes, that's right, she had! And she remembered!

"Wha…?"

Jack suddenly jerked awake and whipped around to face her. "Rapunzel, what…?"

"Uh…" She grinned meekly. "Hey."

He shot up into a sitting position, pulling a hunk of blankets defensively over his chest (despite the fact that he was fully clothed). "What did we do?" he asked, brown eyes wide with fear.

Rapunzel bit her lip, wondering if she should tell him the truth. After a moment's hesitation, she decided she would. She couldn't stand lying, even if it was just a little white one with a fairly good reason for it.

"Well, we didn't do that. But I think we kissed."

"Oh." Jack looked away, seeming to be less than thrilled about the revelation. Rapunzel's shoulders slumped. Yep, definitely should not have told the truth about that one.

"Please don't let this make things awkward, okay?" Rapunzel burst out. "I don't want last night to get in the way of our friendship. You're my best friend, and I don't want to lose you."

To her surprise, Jack responded by bursting out laughing. "What's so funny?" she said sharply.

"Rapunzel, we were drunk off our asses! Of course something like that was going to happen. It doesn't change anything."

"Right. Doesn't change anything." Rapunzel smiled wanly, not sure whether to be relieved or disappointed.

"Thank god we were drinking as much water as we were. Otherwise, I'd be having one shitty hangover right now!"

Rapunzel nodded, but she wasn't really listening.

Everything inside of her was deflating. She wasn't really sure what she had expected. A declaration of love? For both of them to wake up and Jack magically be her boyfriend? But no, just like Jack had said…everything was going to go back to the way it was.

What are you griping about? she scolded herself. You get to keep your best friend without things getting weird, and you got to kiss him last night and remember the whole thing! You'll always have that to hold onto, even if nothing else ever happens.

"I'm gonna go pee," Jack announced, bouncing off of the bed and disappearing out the door. Rapunzel watched him go, sighing softly to herself. Perhaps this really was the ideal situation…always remembering how his lips felt on hers without actively ruining any friendships, always remembering how his body felt in her arms without letting any dangerous feelings out of their cage in a context where they really mattered.

She laid back on the bed, arms hugging her chest. Yes, this was undoubtedly the best possible outcome.

Wasn't it?

Well, meh. I'll be honest with you guys, this is probably my worst Jackunzel Week drabble. Don't worry, they only get better from here, I think XD In retrospect, this one is really…generic. Like you can substitute any pair of close male/female friends for Jackunzel and the story would be pretty much the same. But hey, I've been wanting to try out the "OTP gets drunk at a college party and makes out while they're still just friends" AU for a while, so…here's my (not particularly well-executed) attempt at that! Oh well. It is what it is, and hopefully it was able to entertain you for a couple minutes. Also, if you've ever seen that tumblr text post about the OP meeting a guy in her 8 a.m. class and mixing an energy drink with coffee and drinking the whole thing…well, that was the inspiration for how Jack and Rapunzel met in this college AU XD One of the rebloggers added "imagine your OTP meeting this way" and my first thought was JACKUNZEL JACKUNZEL JACKUNZEL!

TOMORROW: Jack realizes his feelings for the annoying goody-two-shoes he constantly torments are a bit more complicated than he would like to admit.