A/N:

God, I love this already.

Here you go. :)


Chapter Two

I couldn't make her stop cutting, but. . .

I knocked on her apartment door.

The door opened, and her dark brown eyes gazed at me. "Who are you?" Her tone was sleepy, and dark circles stood prominent under her eyes.

"How are you?" I asked. I concentrated on the confusion that filled her, and let it guide me to the scared little girl that hid in her heart.

"I'm fine." She said, and her eyes appraised me. "Are those new?"

I looked at my semi-new jeans and nodded. We hardly went shopping. Apparently, we were to reach a point that people would believe in us so strongly, that we would be trapped in whatever we wore. Because of the thought, Michael had us all make outfits that we'd eventually be wearing all the time.

Mine wasn't done yet. Riley claimed that his was done. I didn't know how he had done it so quickly. But then again, it had been a while since Michael had told us.

Like, three years.

So we all should have been done.

But we were so busy between hard days –where some of us would be in too much pain to move- and good days –where we would go to festivals all over the world and play ping-pong all night- that we hardly had time.

Yet Riley had said he was done.

"Do you need more bandages?" I asked.

Rosemary had the talent of being able to go through walls whenever she wished, thus allowing her to go into the girl's bathroom and tell me that she needed more things to keep her cuts healing and not infected. Sometimes, I really thought everyone else was better than me. I never thought I was equal to them.

Could you blame me though?

The girl looked at me, and then at the plastic bag I was holding.

We were hardly ever at our tree house.

Because we were visible, we couldn't just fly into the sky when we wanted to go home. Well, we'd have to be in the woods or something to do such a thing.

Most of the time, Caroline, Rosemary, Azalea, and I would stay in an apartment, and the boys would stay in an apartment not far from ours. Eugene and Azalea were the ones with a car.

Azalea, Caroline, Nathan, Riley, Michael, and I were the ones with the jobs. Azalea and Nathan worked in a bakery –which was ironic, given Nathan's condition- while Riley worked as a florist. Rosemary had a job. She was hired as his assistant. But then she broke a drying clay pan, so Riley "fired" her. She still snuck in to check on the red poppies she grew in some of his pots.

Michael was a librarian, and Caroline was his assistant.

"Thank you," the girl said, looking at the bandages in the bag. Snow flurries caught in her hair, and most definitely mine. She looked at me, the white strands in my blond hair, the pleading expression on my face. "Is it Halloween or something? Are you Rapunzel?"

I started giggling. "No." My laughter made a twinkle come to her eyes, and she smiled a tiny smile.

She started to close the door, waving at me. "Wait!" I said.

"What is it?" Her brown hair was starting to frizz up because of the snow flurries melting in her hair.

"What's your name?"

She tipped her head to the side. "I'm Luna."


I sat down on the icy concrete stairs, wishing I had brought a hat with me. Caroline was taking forever trying to get Azalea out of the library. When we had walked in, Azalea had been trying to make Nathan eat one of the rolls. Sensing the amount of time that would be wasted standing around, I volunteered to stand around outside.

Silly me.

It had been almost an hour.

"You look happy." A voice made me look up. A young man with ice white hair and from what I could tell, very blue eyes was grinning at me impishly from across the side walk.

Who was he?

I had a guess.

"I've been sitting her for an hour." I looked around for a clock, but then remembered that I was in. . .

I had no idea what state we lived in.

"Where are we?" I asked him.

He raised his dark eyebrows, which didn't make sense. Maybe he dyed his hair. He had the face that had a look of a mischievous elf and an intelligent scholar. So what he said surprised me.

"I actually have no idea." The deep tone of his voice sent a shiver down my spine. He gazed around like he was looking for a "Welcome to. . ." state sign.

He came to sit next to me on the stairs.

"Glad she can see me," he mumbled under his breath. His icy dark blue hoodie and dark brown trousers were timeless. How old was he?

"Why wouldn't I see you?" I asked him, confused. His blue eyes went to my face, and stayed there, searching.

Whose hair could be so white? Like snow? It looked surprisingly soft, like the bottom of a swan's belly. I wanted to run my hand through the strands to see how it felt. His jawline was surprisingly strong, and I wanted to stroke his near-porcelain cheeks.

"Rapunzel, are you ready?" Caroline's voice made the two of us jump.

I hurtled myself to my feet. "Am I ready?"

I looked at where he was sitting and was confused when I realized that he was all the way on the other side of the road again. I looked back at Caroline, and Azalea and Nathan who were walking out. Nathan looked green under Azalea's tight grip.

"Azalea, let go of me." Nathan groaned through clenched teeth.

"You did really good, Nathan." Azalea's tone was soothing.

"I can't believe I ate two." Nathan went greener.

"But you did good. You ate." Azalea soothed uselessly. Even I, even she, could see that Nathan was about to waste her efforts. It wasn't staying down.

"I can't do that again." Nathan groaned. "Azalea, let go."

"Let's see how long it can stay down-"

"Let go." Nathan growled.

Azalea turned him loose and Nathan sprinted down to the nearest trash can. I could hear him retching from where I stood, and a pain shot through my stomach. I doubled over, landing on my knees.

"Rapunzel, it's okay." Caroline and Azalea crowded me.

Nathan was still retching, and with every churn of his stomach, the pain kept flowing. I sucked in a tight breath through my teeth.

"He's okay, Punz." Azalea started to shake me.

"No!" I gasped. "He's not okay." With every retch, he was losing himself. Nathan was already so far gone-

He wasn't okay.

The young man had come back. "What's happened?"

"Stomach pains." I could see Azalea looking at him with wide green eyes. Caroline was busy trying to help me back to my feet.

"She looks like she's about to be sick." The man said. He looked at Caroline. "What happened?"

Caroline didn't seem to hear him.

"Nathan, are you okay?" She called down to him. The man whirled around, looking at Nathan who was now dry heaving into the trash can.

"F-Fine!" Nathan called back weakly.

I felt ice cold fingers try to help me up. He was helping me as well?

"He's okay, Rapunzel." Azalea said again, firmer. Now there were three pairs of hands trying to get me up. I couldn't move, and tried to smack them all away. I curled up in a ball on the floor, trying to match my breathing with the cramps so they'd go away.

"I'm all right." Nathan's footsteps came back quickly. Everyone just stood around me in a circle, watching me try to pull myself together. I watched Nathan walk up behind the man, and then he went through him.

What? I blinked, and struggled to sit up.

"You're okay?" I looked at Nathan, feeling the cramps slowly –so slowly- subside.

Nathan nodded though he looked unsteady on his feet. His unsteadiness made me feel lightheaded. The way my power worked, if one of my friends were in a pain of any kind that connected to a struggle, I would feel it until the pain went away. Until one of us helped them.

Nathan and his struggle with not eating, and his vomiting just now, was a perfect example.

With strangers, I would just slowly stop talking until I hadn't talked for hours. And then days.

But yesterday had been a good day, so I was talkative today.

I managed to get to my feet, rubbing my temples.

"You all right?" The young man with snow white air asked.

I nodded, and exhaled slowly. The last of the cramps were gone.

"What kept you?" I looked at my friends.

Nathan pointed at Azalea, who looked down. The tops of our hair was covered in snow, except for. . .

I realized I hadn't asked him his name.

"Who are you?" I looked at the man, and was somehow pleasantly surprised that his eyes were on me. Those dark blue eyes of his.

He opened his mouth to answer.

"Who are you talking to?" Caroline looked around.

"You can't see him?" I frowned, and gestured to the man with my head. Nathan looked down the sidewalk, and then at the bakery that was still unlocked.

"See who?" Nathan asked.

The man's dark blue eyes went downcast, and I realized that he was some sort of guardian as well.

Azalea looked right at the man, and I saw compassion fill her eyes. Yet her words made me angry. "I don't see him either."

I wanted to push her into the street and demand answers.

I looked at the man, and frowned. "I can see you."

"Well, that's good." He smiled, though his eyes were still sad. He gestured to Azalea with his head. "I'm sure she can."

"What is your name, though?" I asked, and Nathan looked worried.

He blinked. "Rapunzel, let's go home."

"The apartment?" I asked, tipping my head to the side.

"No. We need you to take a bath and get some sleep." Caroline put her hands on her hips.

"The day's just started." I pointed up to the sky, and then realized that it was actually six o' clock at night. Where had the time gone?

"That's it." Azalea crossed her arms in a stern manner. "Bed rest for you."

"And have people get hurt?" I demanded. "I just need to take a walk or something." What else could I do?

"We can't 'take a walk'." Caroline knew what I meant.

I frowned at them, except for the man whose name I still didn't know. "I'll meet you back at the apartment."

"Punz-" Nathan started.

"I'll meet you." I said forcibly, and started walking.

They always tried to do this.

When I couldn't save someone, they threatened to put me on bed rest. What did they want me to do? Smile when I saw someone mar their skin with a knife? I couldn't be strong all the time.

I was around the corner from the park. In the park, every park really, they had an area where there would be ducks and little streams. I was going to 'take a walk', and no one was going to stop me.

I had to get away from Nathan's lightheadedness. It was hard enough for me to walk. The sidewalk kept acting like it wanted to kiss my face.

"Are they worried about you or they're just controlling friends?" The man was suddenly by my side.

I jumped, "You scared me!"

Panic filled his eyes. "I'm very, very sorry!" He yelped, and then his face darkened in concentration as he looked around. It was just an expression, I wanted to say.

I watched him, frozen in my tracks. His messy snow white hair whipped in the rapid movement that his head was making as he stared around. It was sort of funny.

"What are you looking for?" I asked him.

He froze, and his eyes went to me. "Nothing." He straightened up, and I realized that he held a staff in his hand. The top was bent, shaped like a G. Was he a shepherd, or had he wanted it that way?

"Didn't look like nothing." I started humming. I kept walking, confused when he kept up. "Want something?"

"Just your lovely company." He smiled, and the sight of pearly white teeth against near-porcelain skin made me freeze again.

"My company?"

No one really said that.

On the couch, if I was sitting down, Azalea would nearly fall on me plopping on the couch. And then she'd go, "Whatcha doin'?", while giving me the most innocent expression she could manage.

Which, I would never tell her, was downright adorable.

And I glare at her until she let me recover my shock of her nearly crushing me.

"Mh-hm." He smiled wider, and I had to make my feet begin to move again. We walked to the park, and I sat down on one of the benches.

The man looked around, and then at me. "You know, there's a lake around here."

"There's lakes everywhere." I pointed out.

"Coy. I like it." He grinned, causing me to blush.

"It's probably frozen over." I pointed at the snow flurries that were falling down more thickly.

"Yeah," something flickered in his dark blue eyes that were always on me.

I wanted to ask if he was some sort of stalker.

"Why didn't they see you?" I asked, and he sat up, the playfulness gone from his eyes. "Unless my friends are blind, they should have seen you."

He started mumbling. "I'm probably an eye sore." was all I heard.

"You're hardly an eye sore." I muttered under my breath. He looked at me suddenly, and the blush that spread across his face made me smile inside. It was almost blue. Or I was really sick and my pushy friends were right.

"Well, you certainly are a sight for sore eyes." He grinned.

"Be serious." I never looked in a mirror, so for all I knew, he was lying.

"I am, Punzie." He put his hands behind his head and reclined back.

Punzie.

Why did that sound so nice coming from him?

We sat there in a moderate silence.

"They're probably mad at me."

"Why?" He peered at me.

"We stick together. We obey each other. We-"

"Are leaders and followers at the same time?" He arched an eyebrow.

Yup. "No."

"Liar."

"Shepherd." I nodded at his staff.

His eyes widened. "You didn't just. . ."

"Burned." I grinned.

"More like frozen." He huffed.

He went quiet, not looking at me.

I looked at him, and put my hand to my mouth.

I had. . .

"I'm sorry!" I exploded.

"A shepherd!" He threw his hands up in the air. "I am not a shepherd!"

"Then what the heck is that then?" I pointed at his staff.

"It's a staff!" He exclaimed.

"Then you're a bloody Winter Spirit!" I declared.

He went still, his mouth open with shock.

"What? Am I right? Maybe it is Halloween." I frowned. "No calendar at home so. . . You're a Winter Spirit. It makes sense." I touched his hair delicately. "The frost on your clothes, your snow white hair. It's a nice costume."

He was frozen for a few long moments, and then he started laughing.

At me.

Caroline would have killed him. This was what she hated.

"Bye." I got up and started walking to the forest part of the park.

"No!" He called after me, and he was still chuckling. "I'm sorry!"

"I thought that was your costume!" I shouted at him.

I had to remember that part of the park wasn't empty.

"It's not!" He grinned.

"Well, I know that now!"

He hopped off the bench after me, grabbing his 'staff'. He grabbed my shoulder and turned me back to him.

Whoa.

I had to crane my neck to see his head. He was taller than Eugene by quite a few inches. Was he 6'5'' by chance?

"I'm sorry I hurt your feelings." He said sincerely, and his blue eyes were almost hypnotic.

"I did it a few minutes ago, so you should be golden." I hissed.

"You should be frozen." He laughed at his own joke. I didn't really get it, but hey, as Michael said, 'We all have our tastes'.

We stood there for moment, him leaning down at me, and I nearly on my tip-toes to keep eye contact with him.

"I need to go home." I told him, and felt disappointed.

Suddenly, being a 'guardian' was hard.

I liked my new friend.

"I have to bring winter to the world, since I'm a 'Winter Spirit'." He used quotation marks.

I put my hands on my hips though I couldn't stop myself from laughing. The atmosphere between us grew sad quickly.

"Bye, Punz." He whispered, his blue eyes dimmed.

"Bye. . ." I sighed.

He smiled, sensing that I wanted to say his name.

"Jack Frost."