Alright another chapter! Yay!
This one is written in both Jack's and Rapunzel's point of view and it changes but it should be easy to tell who is telling which part. And italics are just parts where they are remembering different times. Thought I would just throw those in there for fun. And we also get to see what is happening in the present as well...
"I want to ice skate on this lake some day," Jack smiled pulling me along behind him. I followed the 10 year old happily unsure of where he was taking me but I followed anyway.
"Where is this that we are going?" I asked as I struggled to keep up with Jack as he sprinted and tugged me along.
"To a lake, it's the best lake in the world and when it freezes it would be the best place ever to skate," He replied and smiled as he continued to tow me along.
Laughing I squeezed his hand tighter as we finally approached a clearing in the trees. Then there it was, a lake, crystal clear blue water surrounded by various pine trees. The air around the lake just seemed so fresh and clean and it was silent and peaceful.
I could feel Jack looking at me and I looked over to him and of course he was smirking at my shocked and amazed expression. "What?" I asked sticking my tongue at him.
He laughed and pulled me around an edge of the lake so that we were looking across it more at the center, "I bet by winter this will be the best place to skate!"
"Why haven't you ever gone before?" I asked leaning into him a little.
"Oh my mom says the ice isn't thick enough and that I am too young or something," Jack replied setting his hands on his hips and staring out to the water, "But she just doesn't know how to have any fun."
"Well I would listen to your mother, you never know if the ice isn't thick enough you could fall in," I replied a bit uneasy and watching the wonder in his eyes only made me worry.
"Nah! It will be fine…." He shrugged and then looked over to me smiling, "I will take you some day! It will be great!" He grabbed my shoulders but he saw the look of uncertainty spreading across my face and he lost his smile a bit. "Hey what's wrong?"
"Jack please don't go on there if your mother tells you no…. I don't want anything to happen to you," I replied looking into his brown eyes. Tears were stinging the back of my own eyes and instantly I pushed his hands off of my shoulders and pulled him into a tight embrace.
He returned the hug and smiled before replying, "Punz I promise that if I ever go skating on this lake I will invite you and I will show you that nothing will happen."
I pulled back and raised by eyebrow at him and he laughed. Then he continued, "And when I make a promise Rapunzel I don't break that promise."
"Ever?" I asked giggling slightly.
"Ever!" He replied.
The rest of the day we spent skipping rocks on that lake. I didn't know that Jack would actually get to go on that lake. At the time I had just hopped he was saying those things to make me feel better. He did love to play tricks after all…
TTT
That day was so many years ago, yet when I think back to it, it seems like it was yesterday. He had been so excited of the thought of skating on that lake and just having fun like he always did. He didn't even know that the one time he actually got to go out on the lake would be his last.
I stared down at the grave before me and clutched my note to him in my hands. Tears were already down my face. I whipped at them with the edge of my sleeve and knelt down placing the note at the base of the stone.
I did this every year on, not the day he died, but his birthday instead. I preferred coming on his birthday because it was a little more cheery than coming on the day that he left the world. I prefer to come the day that he had blessed the world with another beautiful and fun human being. I never wanted to come on the day that, that human had been so unfairly taken from mine and everyone else's world. And of course I always came alone.
For the first years that I had married Eugene he had begged to come with, but I told him that I didn't want that. I said I was going to visit an old friend and that I preferred to do that alone. Besides I didn't want Eugene to know that I had made the act that I had never been out of the tower before. When of course I had been out before. I didn't want him to know that I had been in love before. I didn't want him to know about anything I had ever done before I met him. I just used Eugene… In the beginning anyway. It was an awful thing and I wasn't proud of it, but it is what ended up happening. Even though in the end I did fall in love with him. I guess…
Eugene didn't have to know that the whole reason that I wanted to see the lights was not entirely because they always came on my birthday and that I felt like they were meant for me. I wanted to see them more than anything after Jack died because I wanted to see them, for him. I wanted to be the way that Jack saw them. And when I saw the first lights come up I was so happy and sad at the same time because I was seeing them, but I wanted to see them with Jack and it felt unfair that I was able to see them and he wasn't. I was seeing them with someone else and not with someone that I loved.
That whole night in fact was horribly bittersweet. I felt guilty for falling in love with Eugene and knowing that it could have been Jack in that boat and he would have kissed me. I know that Jack would have kissed me and that there wouldn't have been the worry of Eugene getting caught or something. Sometimes I do wonder though if Eugene was my sort of blessing from Jack as a way to show me the lights and a way to show me fun. A lot of times I just let myself believe that, other times I let myself believe that Eugene is Jack coming back to be with me.
Of course I know that is crazy and I really do love Eugene, he was able to help me and show me so much. Even though Jack started it all, I think that Eugene was the one that was meant to be with me. I suppose things happen for a reason, right? Gothel had told me that long ago… and I guess she got what was coming for her.
Sighing I pulled myself out of those thoughts and looked back to the grave before me. I knelt back down and sat in front of it. Reaching a hand out I followed the letters of Jack's name and the dates engraved in the stone.
Laughing through the tears I spoke, "I wonder what it is like for you now Jack… You probably get to have all of the fun that you want. You don't have a care in the world. I wish I could be there with you… More than anything in the world."
TTT
"How are you so good at that Jack?" Rapunzel asked leaning back slightly as I held her long hair in my hands. I was currently braiding it for her. I loved to do that for her and her hair looked so pretty braided back.
I just laughed, "Practice." I looked over the top of her head and she smiled at me and I winked at her. That only made her laugh.
"Jack you have only braided my hair twice," She replied laughing and reaching to a pile of flowers she handed me another. It was white and blue.
"So?" I asked smirking at her and took the flower and pinned the stem into a fold of her blond hair. It had grown so much since the first time I met her. She had been six and I had been eight. We had bonded instantly and now here we were teenagers. I was 16 and she was 14. Still the best of friends. And as of a few months ago we were a little bit of a couple. That was the summer, the day of Rapunzel's birthday, the day she had kissed me for the first time. And now it was fall, it was a nice day for once. The sun was shinning and we were sitting happily in the clearing of the forest, the lake before us.
"So… Why are you so good at braiding my hair?" Rapunzel asked again leaning back into me making me drop her hair. Her green eyes watched my shocked expression and she laughed.
"Come on!" I complained with a tease in my voice, "I wasn't done yet." She laughed and sat back up I sighed sarcastically, "thank you."
I finished the braid off with a few more flowers and tied it off with a piece of thread that I stole from my mother. She would never know.
"Are you done now?" Rapunzel asked leaning back into my lap.
I smiled and leaned forward to peck a kiss on her nose, "Yes."
TTT
That day was one of those days that you just live for. I loved days like that, where Rapunzel was able to stay with me for long periods of time and we could just laugh and do things like that. Braiding Rapunzel's hair was relaxing and it was just a way for the two of us just laugh and be us…
I remember following Rapunzel and Eugene on their adventure to the kingdom and off to see the lights. And when they got there I couldn't help but laugh, as her hair slowly became a problem. I told her while she was walking who would step on her hair next and laughed as Eugene followed her, her hair spilling out of his arms.
Then however when those little redheaded girls braided her hair I cried. They braided her hair the same way that I always had. They even put little flowers in to help hold more of her hair up. It hurt me. But not as much as when the first lights came up.
When I sat along side the boat and watched the lights come up with her…. That's when I really cried. I sat next to her in the boat leaning against her and watched her set the little flowers out in the water. Then as the first light came up she nearly flipped the boat and almost gave me a heart attack. When I realized what she had actually seen my heart broke. There we were seeing the lights, just like I had promised her.
But the only problem was that she wasn't with me. No she was with someone else. Someone who could fulfill the promise that I couldn't. As she leaned against the end of the boat watching the lights I stood next to her and whispered how beautiful it was. I told her I was sorry. I told her that I missed her. And then I told her I loved her. And for a split second I could have sworn she heard me. She turned slightly looking over her shoulder. Confusion spreading across her face. Then she looked past me and over to Eugene holding two lanterns. And then she went through me, like everyone else did and over to him.
After that I left. I left her in the boat. Later I wished I hadn't though, her mother took her back and Eugene left her and nearly got himself killed. What a loser. But after that Eugene went and saved the day. What a surprise. When Gothel stabbed Eugene my heart broke. Not because I felt bad for him, but because I saw the way that Rapunzel saw him and that she was willing to risk her life for him. She loved him. She didn't love me anymore.
Eugene was her new dream. The lights and me, they were all a thing the past. And in that moment I knew that she no longer had a full heart set aside for me. She loved someone else. She had moved on. I was no longer in her heart as someone she loved. I was nothing but a memory that she sometimes missed.
It is moments like these that I realize this is why Rapunzel will never see me. She sees what she wants in someone else. Her love for me left when someone else filled my shoes and gave her all that she really wanted. It breaks my heart to think that perhaps the whole reason she did love me was because I had promised her so much and I seemed like the guy who would finally give her what she wanted.
I know I shouldn't believe that. But it just seems so true that it actually carries into the fact of why she loves Eugene. He gave her what she wanted. And she loved that. Maybe after all this time that is all she ever wanted. Someone who could give her something and bring that missing life in her back…
I thought I had done that… Then I broke all the promises I ever made to her…
TTT
Today is my birthday. Well that is if I were still alive it would be. I would be 38 now. What a shame I don't age anymore. Haha that is a lie. I would hate to get older. I have gotten so used to living at 17 that I don't think I could live to be any older or any younger. Of course in ways I do wish I could feel what it is like to age up and live life like a normal human being. I wish I were given the opportunities of life for just a little longer. Just to be with Rapunzel one more day, live my life out with her, have kids of our own and give her everything I ever told her that I would.
Every year on my birthday Rapunzel goes and visits my grave. She goes alone and she leaves me a little note. Then she talks to me. And I talk back even though she can't hear me. I like to hear what she has to say and what has been going on in her life when I can't always be there with her.
The interesting thing about my grave is that it is just a stone in the ground. There isn't anything buried there. Since well my body is still alive in a bit of a different side of the world. I am in it still after all, but I have white hair now and several other interesting new features and abilities. But the day that I died Emma ran home and went to my mother. No one knew how to get me out and the water was much too cold. That night I rose out and was Jack Frost. Once spring and summer came around people went looking in the lake and never found my body. After a while they gave up and stopped looking for me. So they just made a tombstone and placed it near the edge of the lake.
Today I was just outside the edge of the kingdom when I heard Rapunzel talking to me. It was interesting every year the same thing happened. If I wasn't near my grave I could, for some odd reason, hear when people stopped and talked in front of my grave. It was weird. Sometimes Emma came by, others my mother, a few times some of my old friends would walk by but most of all Rapunzel came by and I always went to my grave when I heard her voice.
Zipping through the sky I spun around and to the small town as the words echoed through my head "I wonder what it is like for you now Jack… You probably get to have all of the fun that you want. You don't have a care in the world. I wish I could be there with you… More than anything in the world."
Finally I reached the grave and sat lightly on top of the cool stone. I watched Rapunzel as she let her hand slide over the letters in my name and the tears streamed down her face.
"You probably are having all the fun that you ever wanted Jack…." She mumbled.
I sighed and rest my elbow on my knee, "It isn't as fun as you would think Punz…."
"I bet you get to hang from trees, run through the grass, chase the wind and laugh… You get to do everything that you always did but this time without a care in the world no one to stop you…" She continued and pulled her hands away from the stone and wrapped herself in her arms. I was probably giving off some kind of chill; she and I both noticed how her breath started to come out in small puffs.
"I wish it was like that, I want it to be… But how could I do all of that without you?" I asked feeling tears sting in the back of my eyes.
She looked around to the sky and rubbed her upper arms with her hands and looked back to the grave, "The cold reminds me of you."
Shocked my eyes grew wider and I looked at her, "What?!"
"I don't know why, but every time it snows I think of you…" She mumbled and started to push herself to standing.
"No don't go!" I screamed hopping of the grave and standing in front of her. "You know it is me! Then why don't you see me?" I yelled at her and she slowly turned and started back to the town.
"See you next time Jack," She whispered turning away and padding down the path.
I flew over her head and landed not that far in front of her. Think. What did I have to do to get her to see me? "Why can't she see me?" I screamed looking up to the silhouette of the moon through the trees. Of course I got no response and was left in the silence as Rapunzel walked closer and closer to me.
In a moment a thought struck me. Taking my staff I ran the edge along the ground in front of me, creating a white trail of swirling frost just a few feet in front of me.
Rapunzel stopped walking and looked at it confused. She stepped closer to the frost and instantly I flipped over her and made another spot leading her back to the direction of the lake. She turned and walked over to the spot her eyebrows in a furrow. Glancing around she looked ahead at the several frost patterns that I made leading her back to the lake.
I grinned as she followed them and I started to whisper as I made more and more patterns on the ground leading right to the lakes edge, "Rapunzel I promise, that you will see me and I promise that one day we will be happy and laughing together again…"
Rapunzel raised her eyebrows as she reached the edge of the lake and peered around. Gracefully I landed on the water and where I stood soon froze instantly around my feet. I laughed as Rapunzel gasped and leaned forward trying to reach and grasp what ever it was that was making these remarkable things happen.
Breathing in I closed my eyes and let the cold spread out from my whole body, "And when I make that promise Rapunzel I don't break that promise," I opened my eyes as I spoke the last words. I stared at Rapunzel and we looked each other in the eye. Words were caught in her mouth and neither of us said anything.
I couldn't believe it I was about to speak out when a voice interrupted me, "Rapunzel there you are." It was Emma. She was walking quickly over to the green-eyed girl before me and seemed urgent.
Shaking her head Rapunzel turned around and to the younger girl, "Oh hello Emma. What is it?"
"Mother she is asking for you, come quick! I think she is sick!" Emma replied looking very nervous. Then she peered over Rapunzel's shoulder, "What were you looking at?"
As she asked the question I looked around and realized that when Rapunzel had looked away I had let the ice melt and the frost on the ground was gone as well. No….
Rapunzel turned and looked right through me and it felt like a thousand knives went through my heart, "Oh nothing," Rapunzel smiled and then quickly looked back to Emma, "But we better hurry and get to your mother.
"Yes please do hurry," Emma suddenly replied taking Rapunzel's hand and towed her out of the forest.
I watched as the two ran out of the forest, and felt my heart sink. She had almost seen me… But that wasn't going to stop me.
"I don't break that promise," I flew up and out of the forest clutching my staff tightly as I headed for home.
"Ever."
Soooooo... Tell me what you think so far! Leave comments and reviews. I love to read them.
Sorry about lack there of in the way of updates but I will try to write as fast as I can and pretty soon I should be able to update a lot :D Yay.
And don't be shy to point out errors I will fix them :D
