Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons Project
Title: Incomparable
Summary: Human AU. "We're a great team. We're like… um…" Hogwarts? Seasons? A ring of epic movies? Our favourite quartet banters back and forth the themes they have been featured in by the fans themselves!
Author's Note: once again, I got into hype for imagination's sake. I decided not to imitate Merida with her accent for I am not well versed with it and may end up insulting a fan. Last names are inspired by other fanfictions. Since I see so many themes for this group I played with the idea of them talking about it.
Disclaimer: You know the drill, I don't own the characters nor the themes.
"Oh c'mon guys. Don't be so let down. We're still the best group ever!"
Rapunzel offers him a small thankful yet still wilted smile while Merida simply rolls her eyes at him.
"We're not let down, Jack. We're just merely digesting the odds," Hiccup replies, leaning against the wall as he flexes and straightens his prosthetic ankle joint out of habit. "But if you're referring to the disaster we ended up a while ago, then I'd say we're the best in grinding the adults' last nerves." He began ticking off his fingers. "My dad, Merida's mom, Punzie's mom, your Uncle Aster-"
"Odds, schmodds- we're just having a setback," Jack says, twirling his staff. Being dragged to a wood carving class by his best friend has been worth it in the end, but he'll only admit that to Hiccup at the point of death. "We're a great team. We're like… um…"
He looks at his friends for inspiration. Rapunzel looks at him with bright curious eyes, Merida purses her mouth impatiently ("Out with it!") while Hiccup simply gives him a bemused smile as though knowing whatever would come out of his mouth would start another chain reaction in them.
"A Hogwart's Inter-House Study Group!" Rapunzel pipes up excitedly. Two brunettes and a redhead look at her blankly.
Sensing, she's not getting input, she gestures to Merida. "Merida would be the perfect Gryffindor!"
There is suddenly a spark in her eyes that the Scottish girl is all too familiar with- Rapunzel is off with her imagination again.
The brunette bounces in her place, "Jack can be the Slytherin for his slight disregard for rules-"
Merida bursts out laughing while Hiccup raises a brow at her. "Slight?" they ask in unison. Jack gives out a chuckle.
"And Hiccup in Hufflepuff would make a great side story because people always underestimate him for… er…" she indicates her hands to him.
Hiccup gives her a withering glance. "You just gestured the whole lot of me," he says, earning a laugh from them.
"Four Houses of Hogwarts? What about the four seasons?" Merida asks; she jerks her head at Jack. "I mean, we already got a Jack Frost in here."
"Oh c'mon, princess. Do I look like a winter spirit to you?" The brunette spreads his arms.
"What? Your name's Jack and you never shut up about snowboarding."
"Maybe you should be the spirit of summer; you've got a temper of Thor during a summer thunderstorm." He gives a pause then winces. "I should really stop hanging out in your house, Hiccup. Your dad's rubbing off on me."
Rapunzel tweaks his nose with a laugh, "If she reminds you of Thor, you remind me of Loki."
Merida made a sound between a snort and a chuckle. They look at each other, grinning, before making their perfect imitation of Mrs. Elinor's voice in unison, "Merida, a lady does not chortle!" before ending up in fits of laughter.
"Hey!" Jack turns to Hiccup with mock indignation, "They're ganging up on me," he whines, pointing at each turn at the two teenage girls like a tattletale-ing three year old.
Hiccup gives a shrug. "Well, you are a prankster. Why do you think we get into trouble most of the time?"
Jack straightens up with an air of a lecturer, "Excellent question, I've been waiting for someone to ask that."
He draws a wide circle on the ground with his staff and separates it into four quarters.
Jack draws an "H" inside a quarter, "Good intentions with not-so-good inventions-"
"Improving!"
"- improving inventions then." He draws an "M" inside the next quarter, "Rebellion-"
Merida crosses her arms in front of her, "I prefer you call it changing your fate. What kind of an idiot won't do something about it?"
"-Guts it is." Next, he draws an "R" inside the quarter below that, "Curiosity."
Then a "J" on the remaining quarter, "And/or fun." He then dots the rest of the pie chart with the staff, "Bear's Tooth Incident, Science Fair Fiasco, Break-in to Mr. North's Toy Shop, Floating Lights Mystery- throughout our history together, the number of times we got into trouble because of that person is equally distributed inside the graph."
Jack looks up from his diagram with satisfaction to see the look on their faces, "What? I grew up with Hiccup."
Merida nods slowly, "Maybe they did put all of us in separate classes for a reason." She turns to others and shrugs. "Just like Jack said before."
Brown eyes widen as Jack theatrically clutches his heart. "Someone call the paramedics! Merida just agreed with me!"
The red-haired girl rolls her eyes, "Lad, I got half a mind-"
"And she finally admits the truth!" Jack crows, raising his staff in victory. "Jack: 1, Merida: 0!"
Merida's face begins to form into a snarl when Hiccup spoke up quietly. "Actually, Merida's 16 points ahead."
Everyone stares at him. "Seriously?" Jack asks.
"And Punzie's seven points ahead of you." He looks at their incredulous faces and shrugs, "I got good observational skills and numbers don't lie."
Merida bursts out laughing, "And one point for Hiccup over Jack".
"You always take the fun out of everything," Jack mutters under his breath.
Hiccup shakes his head and gives Rapunzel a sidelong glance, "Speaking of seasonal spirits, I'm pretty sure who will be the spring spirit, in our case."
Jack and Merida become silent as they look at her. Yup, they can pretty much envision her in a green meadow with the sun shining, birds singing and flowers everywhere-
Jack suddenly covers his mouth, his shoulders shaking.
"What?" Rapunzel asks.
"My gawd, Rapunzie. I just realize after all this years," Jack shakes his head, "You're a Disney Princess!"
Rapunzel tilts her head, looking at him with wide green eyes, her full lips purse in confusion. "Huh? No, I'm not."
Jack looks at the others, dramatically gesturing at her with a bow, "I rest my case."
"Actually, yes you are," Hiccup replies grinning with a hand in his chin. "You can be the first Disney Princess to turn the whole princess thing around. Heck, who paints and does aerial yoga at the same time?"
Rapunzel puts her hands on her chest and just to milk the joke, she bats her eyelashes with a wide-eyed cover girl smile, "You really think so?" Merida lets out a laugh.
Hiccup holds up his arms as though blinded while Jack clutches his chest and pretends to faint. With an amused grin, she grabs them into a hug in each arm, "You two are the sweetest heterosexual guy friends ever."
Hiccup looks at Jack over Rapunzel's head, "You know, this," he holds up his thumb and forefinger a breadth space apart, "almost feels like the time I got friendzoned."
Jack gives him a confident smirk, "Friendzone? What's that?" The arm around his shoulders loosens to knock him upside on the head.
Merida looks at Hiccup dryly, "Please don't get him started."
Rapunzel looks up thoughtfully in playful consideration. "Do you think I have to be blonde first?"
Jack nods solemnly but couldn't repress the smirk forming in his face. "How about long golden tresses that can support you while you paint the ceiling? But really, we can forget that."
He elbows her cheekily with a loaded grin. "I heard that movie star Flynn Ryder is more into brunettes."
Everyone laughs at the rising colour in her cheeks as she gave Jack a light chastising slap on the arm.
Rapunzel gives a gasp of inspiration and leans forward to Merida excitedly, her hands clasped together.
"You would make a cool Disney Princess!" she said. Merida snorts.
"Oh please, like I would want a Prince Charming to come rescue me. I would have whupped the villain myself."
"That's just it! You're the star athlete in your archery team and fencing team and know horseback riding. You're the princess that would stand on her own!" Rapunzel looks up dreamily, she can see it now. Merida in a long royal dress shooting arrows while riding a horse, her trademark flaming hair flying.
Meanwhile, in Hiccup and Jack's imagination, it's the same thing only there's a screaming Prince Charming running away from her fleet of arrows. Jack bit down his mirth while Hiccup suppresses a shudder.
"That would be an epic movie," Rapunzel continues in oblivious content.
Hiccup glances at Jack, "You know, Jack Frost is more of an expression. What if you star a movie as him to make him a more popular persona? You can be with Santa Claus-"
"-The Tooth Fairy-" Rapunzel offers.
"-Sandman-" Merida said, smirking.
"-And the Easter Bunny?" Jack asks, rolling his eyes. "Can you hear yourself, guys? Where do you even get those ideas?"
"And save the children around the world!" Rapunzel said optimistically.
Jack looks at her with dry amusement. "You don't quit, do you?"
She shrugs, "Kids look up to you, especially Jamie Bennett."
"Speaking of epic movies, Hiccup here would make a great dragon trainer," he said, his grin indicating a mischief to come.
The two girls look at him confusedly. Merida raises a brow, "Because of his Viking origins?"
Hiccup laughs, "Judging from what my dad told me, my ancestors would probably kill them first before even considering that."
Jack's smile grows wider. "Except you, you mighty Viking, but I'm not referring to that."
"So why do you say so?" Rapunzel inquires.
Jack's grin grows wider as he waggles his eyebrows at them, "He already tamed one, didn't he?"
Through the looks of confusion from Hiccup and Merida, Jack catches Rapunzel's eye and she easily understands. How many times has Hiccup made Merida to stop and think in her heat of the moment with just a quiet word? Jack beams at her.
"Now I only get bruises for surprise-hugging Punzie," he said stepping forward to the girl with open arms.
Rapunzel whips up her frying pan and holds it to him with mock seriousness. "I will use this."
Jack walk backwards with an exaggerated sheepish grin, his arms now held up in surrender.
Hiccup clears his throat, "So what kind of group are we?"
Rapunzel's already bright eyes lit up again with an idea, her frying pan gone. "Sugar Rush Candy Cart Characters!"
A cricket can be heard chirping in the background.
Jack swings his staff around thoughtfully. "Sounds familiar, is that from the arcade game in the little kid section?"
Rapunzel nods eagerly, "They're cute! Plus, you can be Jack Frosting and that staff you're holding can be a candy cane-"
Jack rolls his eyes. "Am I gonna be stuck with that name?"
Hiccup gives him a sideways smile, "Karma. Why do you think I got stuck with Hiccup?"
His best friend raises his arms in appeal. "I was three, who could pronounce Hendrick at that age?"
"- Merida can be Merridough-"
"- Heck, no. Enough with the cutesy wootesy-"
"And you can be Punzie Sprinkles!" Jack interrupted, ruffling Rapunzel's short hair. "Honestly, with that imagination of yours, you could paint a gallery out of a house- oh, wait." He ducks from another chastising swat from the laughing girl. "You already did, Flynn Fangirl."
Welcome to the end of verbal bantering.
Out of nowhere, Rapunzel whips up her frying pan again. Jack looks at his staff. "Hey no fair, that's stainless steel!"
Hiccup rolls his eyes. "Actually, that's an old-fashioned iron pan that would outlast any stainless steel pans sold in walmarts these days." Jack laughs and dodges while Rapunzel teasingly swings it at him. "If you listen to any of my hobbies-"
"But they're geeky!" Jack yells as Rapunzel chases him around their two friends.
Merida looks at Hiccup. "Anyway, what's our group like?"
Jack and Rapunzel stop in the midst of their roughhousing. With Rapunzel on his back, he was trying to unclasp the legs around his torso with one hand while loosening the arm crooked around his neck with the other. Rapunzel looks up to them, one elbow poised to strike above Jack's head. She slides off his back and they both pick up their forgotten weapons.
"I don't think it matters," Jack said musingly. "I mean, just look at the contents!" He jerks his thumb to himself. "Jack Overlands, the awesome guy who brings the coolness into the group."
Both Merida and Hiccup groan while Rapunzel good naturedly rolls her eyes.
Jack extends his staff and taps Merida on the head ("Hey!"), "Merida Dunbroch, the hotheaded quiverhappy hooligan who spices things up."
Using the arm holding the staff, he swings it around Hiccup's shoulders. "Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, the fulcrum who balances out the two poles." At the word "poles", he uses the staff to hook Merida's waist and pull her closer so that Hiccup gets sandwiched in between. He looks at Rapunzel.
"And Rapunzel Corona-"
Seeing her friends bunched up together, Rapunzel did what Rapunzel would do. She sweeps them all up into a big giant bear hug. Jack grins through her short brown hair as he encircles his arm around her shoulders into the group.
"You're the golden threads that hold everyone together."
"Aaaawww…" that will be from Rapunzel, of course. Hiccup's arms rise awkwardly and pat whatever backs he could find. Merida follows suit torn between exasperation and the warm moment.
"Alright, already. You're all giving me diabetes."
"Maybe this is what our group is," Hiccup says quietly.
"What's that?"
Hiccup grins. "Incomparable."
Author's note: This took longer than I thought. I had a lot of fun of the four of them bouncing ideas back and forth and Jack just won't shut up inside my head. I made them as platonic as possible but I think pairings can still be perceived if you tilt your head and squint real good. :) I hope you enjoyed it!
Sugar Rush Names originally derived from from spock-sickle of DA and made a great comic about it! :) hooray for imagination! :D
Hogwarts, Guardians of the Seasons and Rise of the Brave and Tangled Dragons are accredited to every fanart and fanfic out there who inspired this out of me! ;)