They were best friends as kids. You could see the four of them all walking in a line down the sidewalk on the way to school. Next door neighbors in a hopelessly tiny town. Ever since they were little, they've known each other. The little blonde girl who liked to sing to herself whenever she played. The short boy who liked to run barefoot in the snow during winter. The red-haired Scottish girl who really liked action figures more than dolls. The awkward brunette boy who talked to forest animals more than people.
They didn't really get along at first. Thrown together at a grown up dinner party, they sat in separate corners of the room, staring at one another. The blonde soon befriended the red-haired girl named Merida. Jack tried to convince Hiccup to help him tie strands of the two girls' hair together. But they grew together with time. At the kids table Jack would stick baby carrots up his nose to make them laugh until apple juice came out Hiccup's nose.
In the third grade, Rapunzel gave Jack a ring pop and asked him to marry her. He said he would, but not to tell the other boys. They were wed behind the monkey bars during recess. Meanwhile Merida soon found that her favorite game was chasing Hiccup around the playground until she caught him and pinned him to the ground.
They really had nothing in common. Awkward mismatched personalities that somehow all fit together like the pieces of a puzzle. There was something of an outcast inside each of them and it bonded the four together. They stayed friends through grade school, and even made it through high school. By then each of them had different cliques – Rapunzel with her fellow artists and drama kids, Merida hung out with the soccer jocks, Hiccup with the video game geeks, and Jack…when he didn't hang out with the smokers behind the school, he was alone a lot of the time. But every now and again they would pass one another in the hallway and exchange reminiscent smiles.
They faded away after high school. That's always the way, isn't it? Rapunzel went to a low-tuition arts school. Merida took a gap year and traveled the world. Jack studied through the local community college. Hiccup made it to a prestigious university in Colorado to study veterinary medicine.
Years later Rapunzel slips into a nearby coffee shop because even though it's only autumn the cold is biting like a winter frost and a cup of hot chocolate sounds like the greatest thing on the planet.
"Punz? Rapunzel?" She turns around while waiting in line and sees an attractive boy around her age with snowy white hair approaching her. Why does he know her name?
"Um…hi?" Her brow curls in confusion as she tucks a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.
"It's Jack…Jack Overland? From when we were kids?" He puts a hand to his chest as though physically gesturing to himself will jog her memory. It seems to work, however, because her green eyes light up with recognition.
"Jack! Hi!" She automatically moves to hug him. "How are you? What have you been doing?"
He's not entirely sure what to do with the hug, considering they haven't seen each other in four years. "I'm good, I've been studying medicine at the local college, I'm going to medical school in the fall." His head bobs with normalcy because he's been asked that question at least a dozen times. He gestures to her. "But what about you? Last I heard you were studying art, right?"
She nods enthusiastically. "Yeah, I'm a freelance artist at the moment, actually." She shrugs. "It pays the bills. But medical school, wow! That's really great, Jack."
The barista calls for the next customer and Rapunzel's attention snaps back to the coffee shop. "Listen, if you have time do you wanna have coffee with me? I'd love to catch up."
He nods probably more enthusiastically than he should. "Yeah, I'd really like that." She grins and goes to order her coffee. Jack watches her walk up in her caramel-colored trench coat, blonde hair spilling out her magenta beanie. God, she's just as beautiful as she was in high school.
Hiccup found a strange peace in the park. The earthy green tones of the trees, the way the sunlight filtered through them, how everyone seemed to be in their own little serene world there. He sketches thin pencil lines in his book. He wasn't a very good artist, but it was a comforting hobby to pass the time. He's pretty sure if he didn't have sketching during the endlessly vexing hours of veterinary school, he'd lose his mind.
"Hiccup?" He blinks a couple times because it's very rare that anyone finds him here, and on top of that he's not one hundred percent sure this person actually said his name because it was lost within the thick Scottish accent. When he finally looks up he sees freckled legs in gray jogging shorts and brings his gaze up to her trademark springy orange hair tied back in a bushy ponytail and immediately he recognizes her.
"Merida! Hey! How are you—what are you doing here?" There's shock but also a pleasant amazement in his voice and Merida takes that as a good sign.
She stretches her right arm over her head as she speaks to him. "I'm finally back home, I've been studying abroad in Scotland." An easy smile plays across her face. The years of college and post-high school freedom have been kind to her, giving her more confidence and ease than she had in high school.
Hiccup scoots over to give Merida some room to sit beside him on the bench, smiling albeit awkwardly when she does sit. "Wow, just like you've always wanted." He says it more to himself because he forgot how she always left him in awe over everything she does. "Well, uh, I've been training to be a veterinarian, so there's that." He rubs his neck in discomfort. Geez, four years and he still can't talk to girls.
Somehow that gets a laugh out of her. He had forgotten how her cheeks reddened when she laughed. And how blue her eyes were.
They sip coffee in the corner of the shop by the window. Even though she knows it's weird, she rests her feet up against the window and leans back in her chair. He sips a mocha Frappuccino (she teased him about how he could possibly want a cold drink in this freezing weather, and he retaliated that he's cold-blooded so it fits, doesn't it?).
"Okay, your turn!" she giggles. They're exchanging memories from back when they were kids.
Jack rests a hand against his chin as he thinks. "Hm…I remember that you had that imaginary iguana friend, right?"
"Pascal, yeah!" Her eyes widen as the memory comes back to her. "And excuse you, he was a chameleon. Big difference."
"Oh, how could I make such a mistake?" he teases dramatically.
Rapunzel laughs and stares into her coffee. "Do you remember when we got married with those ring pops?"
Of course he remembers. He hadn't realized it at the time, but he'd had the biggest crush on third grade Rapunzel. And high school Rapunzel. But that was something he just kept to himself. "Yeah, I do." He laughs warmly. "And you wouldn't let me have the cherry one." He points at her accusingly, but his constant smirk still tugs at his lips.
"Well cherry was my favorite!" she comes back mock-defensively. She takes a sip of coffee. "Besides, it was my wedding day, I think I deserved it." He laughs at her coy smile and Rapunzel pretends that her stomach isn't still fluttering with butterflies the way it did whenever she say him in high school. "And you didn't want to get married in public, I remember that." She squints at him, a silly grin plastered to her face.
He raises his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry, but you had cooties."
She laughs incredulously and raises an eyebrow, and soon they're both giggling like idiots who never left high school.
"No, I totally agree. How are we supposed to 'find ourselves' when we're constantly being shoved into predetermined categories?" Hiccup feels his lips turn up in a grin as he talks. There's something about this conversation with Merida that opens something up in him. It's easy and comforting and nice and he can't believe he went so long not talking to her all the time.
"Right? Thank you!" She still emphasizes nearly every word she says with grand hand gestures. She pauses for a moment because talking to Hiccup feels familiar in a strangely wonderful way. "I missed you, Hic."
His big goofy grin crinkles his eyes. "I missed you too."
She twiddles with her fingers for a moment before saying "You know I think I had a crush on you in the third grade."
His eyes widen a lot more than they probably should have but he honestly doesn't believe that Merida's actually saying this. "Wh—really?"
She giggles. "Well, yeah. I mean why do you think I chased you around the playground every day?"
He grins reminiscently. "I remember that. I dunno, I guess I always thought you did it cause I was so puny."
"Well, it was" she admits, shrugging slightly. Then she blushes and gets tiny like the sixteen year old in high school who wished the four of them were still best friends. "But it was also cause I like you."
Now Hiccup feels his cheeks getting red. Which, by the way, is ridiculous. He shouldn't be bashful about a crush from the third grade but the blush continues to creep up his cheeks. "Well…I sort of…had a huge crush on you in high school." He says it quietly, embarrassment coating every word. A third grade crush is one thing, but a high school crush…
Her eyes widen slightly and she blinks dumbstruck a couple times. "You did?"
He rubs the back of his neck again. "Yeah…I must have made it pretty obvious."
Now they're both blushing and even though neither of them says anything the biggest smiles grow on each of their faces.
The four of them show up at their high school reunion and reserve four seats at a table.
Merida has that pregnant lady glow and Hiccup proudly tries to get everyone he sees to feel her stomach because his boy is a kicker, that's for sure. He teases Merida that their baby will inherit her varsity soccer player genes.
Rapunzel tells their table the story of how three years after meeting again in the coffee shop Jack proposed to her with a ring pop (and made sure it was cherry flavored). Even though they've been married for a several years now, they still act like teenagers in love. She'll forget what she's saying and just stare at him for a moment. Merida and Hiccup tease them constantly about being idiots in love.
They were friends as kids, but even after countless years, they find each other again – aging, white-haired friends, who still act like the four neighborhood kids who were thrown together at that dinner party.