Horizontal lines - indicate beginning/end of a flashback; asterisks *** indicate switching scenes between current events.
"When you fold that corner in, you can see this part folding in as well-"
"What?"
"Follow the crease, Jack."
"Crease? What crease?"
"There should be a crease there! Didn't you crease it in step 3?"
"The fuck?"
"Jack!" Rapunzel snatched the piece of paper away from him, examining it. "You didn't crease it! Now it's all messed up!"
"Fuck it," Jack said recklessly, grabbing the paper again and dropping it. "I can't do it, Punzie, it's just too hard and I'm an idiot. Origami sucks."
"It does NOT," Rapunzel said, laughing. "It's an ancient Japanese art form that explores the possibilities one can make from a single piece of paper. The crane is basic!"
"Why do we have to do this on our first date? Can't we just, like, make out?" He leaned in and tried to kiss her. She pushed him away, giggling.
"If you wanna get artsy, Sunshine, then watch this." Every one of Jack's female best friends was 'princess' to him, but since he and Rapunzel started dating, she'd been his Sunshine. His only sunshine. He pulled a Swiss knife out of his front hoodie pocket and grabbed a new sheet of paper. Rapunzel peered at him, curiously watching as he folded the paper just so and started cutting jagged holes all over it.
"What the hell is that?" Rapunzel said. Jack shushed her. Finally he opened the paper, revealing its perfect snowflake shape.
"See?" He said, grinning. "I'm pretty artsy too."
"It's wonderful!" Rapunzel said. "Show me how to do that, Jack..."
She was an artist, and her artist's mind caught on to the technique easily. They held their paper snowflakes up against the sunlight, as a flock of geese flapped away in the distance.
"Is this gonna be our thing?" Jack said. "Are we gonna be the weird couple that makes paper snowflakes now?"
"People in town are already judging us for our secondhand clothes, so why not?" Rapunzel said. "You know, the Japanese have this belief that finishing one thousand paper cranes grants the maker a long, prosperous life. It's called Senbazuru."
"Prosperous as in, like, money?" Jack gave her a sideways look. "Sounds neat."
"But you refuse to learn origami," Rapunzel teased. "If you won't even finish one little crane how do you expect to make a thousand?"
"We could make one thousand snowflakes instead," Jack said. "Seriously. We could! It'll be our thing. Hiccup and Merida's thing is fishing during off-season-"
"It's called 'fishing before it's cool'," Rapunzel corrected.
"Then our thing is making snowflakes all year round! Senbazuru with a twist. Because convention isn't in our vocabulary."
Rapunzel laughed. "You really want to do that?"
"Heck, yeah!"
She smiled. "Okay. One thousand paper snowflakes for a long and prosperous relationship."
"D'you have to do that here?" Merida said, as Jack and Rapunzel shed white paper cuttings all over their table at the Snuggly Duckling. "How do you even see in this light?"
The group's favorite hangout place was a modest coffee shop during daytime, but when night fell it became a dark bar that offered the latest in indie performances- usually by locals like Rapunzel, Jack and their gang.
"It's become a habit," Jack said. "How many have we got in your box, Punzie?"
"Must have over a hundred fifty in the past month," she said. Onstage, Anna and Elsa duetted a cover of All You Need is Love while their friend Olaf accompanied them on harmonica.
"And what are you guys going to do with a thousand snowflakes when you finish?" Hiccup said dryly. On his shoulder was Toothless, his sleek black cat- Hiccup was the only patron of the bar allowed to bring his animal inside.
Jack shrugged. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, eh?"
The snowflakes found their way into their pockets, random books they were reading, folded into their wallets, tucked into the case of Rapunzel's guitar. At one point or another they lost track and ended up doing it habitually, a normal thing they'd do together. Then finals week threw everyone for a loop, and the snowflakes lay forgotten where they were, the project coming to a halt without either of them really deciding to take a break.
Afterward, Jack and Rapunzel sort of just stopped making snowflakes; both thinking maybe they should get to it again sometime, but more than anything they were both just caught up with life as it was going on- performing at the Snuggly, filling college application forms, biking all over town on rusty fixed-gear bicycles.
Then Jack went ice skating with his sister and one misplaced step sent everything crashing down into darkness.
Long and prosperous relationship, my ass.
Rapunzel got out of bed and peered under her desk. It was still there; the box of snowflakes, slightly dusty, but intact. Three hundred and twenty-five, as scribbled on the inside wall of the box. They never even got close to a thousand.
Rapunzel hated starting something and never finishing it.
I'll finish this one for you, Jack. Whatever it takes.
***
Merida curled her fingers around Hiccup's hand as they both stared at the moon.
"Jack's probably up there laughing his arse off at us," she said.
Hiccup snorted. "I don't doubt it." He sighed. "God, I can only wonder how Punzie must feel."
Merida frowned. "Poor lass. And worse still is how people look at her now."
"What do you mean?"
"Nobody sees Rapunzel for who she is," she explained. "She used to be the blonde chick who did street art all over the park. Now she's just the dead boy's girlfriend. Hazel, too- now she's the little girl whose brother drowned. And it's unfair," Merida said, her voice reaching a strangled note. "It's just unfair. Why are we defined by the things we lose and the shit that fate throws at us?"
"I thought you said- that we make our own fate," Hiccup said.
"Not all the time," Merida said, tears in her big blue eyes. "Not all the time, Hic."
He folded her in his arms and ran his fingers through her red hair. Hell, he'd been dating this girl for six months, but he still couldn't help but think Jack would have a sure success of cheering her up.
***
Hazel was angry.
She'd blown up at her mother when she couldn't find Jack's favorite blue hoodie among his things, thinking that maybe their mom had given it away. She had- to Rapunzel. That reassured Hazel, but she was already mad, so she decided to stay mad all the way out of her room and into the street, all the way down to Rapunzel's place.
Maybe a chat with her favorite blonde would help her chill. Since she and Jack had started dating, Rapunzel had become something of an older sister to her. She arrived at Rapunzel's house and saw her mom and dad in the living room, but no Punzie. Hazel knocked on the door.
"Good evening, Hazel," said Rapunzel's mother.
"Hi," was all Hazel could say. "I haven't seen Punzie in a week. Can I come in?"
When Hazel entered Rapunzel's room, she found the blonde on the floor, on her knees, bent over a piece of folded paper. Paper cuttings littered the floor, flowed out of two wastebaskets, and on a long string of twine were strung countless paper snowflakes, all of different shapes and sizes.
Hazel gaped. "Punzie..."
Rapunzel looked up. "Oh- hi, Hazel."
"Did you make all of these?"
Rapunzel nodded. "I guess I got carried away."
She looked around. "I remember...you and Jack went through a snowflakes phase. He was crazy about them."
"Yes," Rapunzel said. "We always said we'd finish a thousand snowflakes together." She paused. "I'm doing it now."
Hazel knelt down next to her. "They're beautiful."
Rapunzel smiled. "Thank you." She bent her head, continuing to cut away at another snowflake.
Hazel tried to speak again. "Do you have Jack's hoodie?"
"Yes." Rapunzel nodded to where it was hanging on a bedpost. "It's there. Would you like it back?"
Hazel shook her head with a sigh. "No, just making sure my mom really gave it to you, and didn't throw it away. She hates second-hand things."
The blonde only nodded.
"Rapunzel," said Hazel, "you should get out of the house. We haven't seen you around town in three days."
Now Rapunzel looked at her and her eyes had an odd, distant gaze. "I thought about that. But I'm just not ready." She opened the latest snowflake and watched the pattern unfold with a blank stare.
"But you have to stop making so many snowflakes at some point," Hazel said desperately.
"I'll stop when I hit a thousand." Rapunzel reached for another sheet of paper and folded it just so, then bent her head again. Snip, snip. She looked up at Hazel for a moment."Thanks for dropping by."
Hazel walked back home, by herself, without Jack's hoodie. She couldn't stop thinking about how zoned out Rapunzel looked, all the paper snowflakes in her room, the endless snip, snip of scissors. It was like something had broken in her—but, being Rapunzel, she lost herself in doing something creative, focusing on one paper snowflake after another.
You know, she shouldn't have to go through this alone...
She encountered Hiccup and Merida on their way home. Merida seemed to be in tears; Hiccup was holding her close to his chest.
"Haze," he said, surprised. "What the hell are you doing out here so late? It's fucking freezing." God, if anything happened to his best friend's little sister, Hiccup would lose his goddamn mind.
"Hiccup, chill," said Hazel. "I just went to see Rapunzel."
Merida blinked. "You went to see Rapunzel? How is she?"
Hazel shrugged. "Not that great. I think you guys should go and see her." She frowned. "In fact, I think we should all go and see her."