Rapunzel
I was running this way and that between rooms. Our sparse staff was overworked, and I knew it was my duty to help out my kingdom in a crisis like this. The snow had finally let up, and I could catch glimpses of sunlight every once in a while. Outside was what one would call a "winter wonderland." Every house seemed to be buried beneath the many inches of snow that had gathered through the night. Under the sun, the whiteness of it all was blinding, except for the occasional rainbow I saw shimmering outside.
Though the clouds were clearing out, it only seemed to be getting colder. I was constantly adding wood to fires, carrying extra blankets to those who needed them, and serving hot meals in the dining room to long lines of my subjects. I had to be very careful as I worked, though. Many careless children or - ahem - Dukes tended to trod all over my long hair. Every time I caught that annoying Duke of Weasel-town, he would bow, apologize insincerely, and wander off to wherever again, muttering something about witchcraft. Now, I'm not normally a spiteful person, but I would like nothing more than for the fjord to mysteriously thaw and to send him on his merry little way...and then watch it get frozen again where he could complain far, far away from me.
No matter how hard I worked, though, I couldn't get my mind off of Jack and Anna. I had gone up to try and talk to Anna a few times, but I never found her in her room. On my last try in between duties, I heard her moving around inside Elsa's room. Though I knew Anna loved company and preferred to be comforted, Elsa's room felt foreboding, even without her in it. I stopped myself from knocking on the door and walked away, figuring that if she was there, she probably wanted to be alone to think, just like her sister. It was a lot to think about, after all.
Then, there was the fact that Jack still hadn't returned. He had left long before the sun had risen, and it was already past noon. I really hoped he was alright. He had told me before about how bad Pitch Black was and had told me that he could handle him if he ever came around, but - and I hated admitting this because I loved him so - I worried if he was telling the whole truth. What if he couldn't handle Pitch this time? What if we never got Elsa back? What if Jack didn't even come back? I had become so caught up in my own thoughts that I noticed I had stopped and leaned against the wall for support. I took a deep, calming breath and forced myself to move forward. "Everything's fine. Just think positive."
Maybe I was overthinking everything. Maybe he was just taking too long because he was patching things up with Elsa, or handing Pitch over to whoever the authorities were when dealing with legendary figures, or maybe just helping Elsa clean up the winter. "Yeah, that's it," I concluded out loud. "That's why the snow's let up. That's - oh!"
There was a sharp yank on my hair again, and I turned to find - who else? - the Duke of Weasel-town. I had been polite about it the entire time, but being ostracized by your kingdom because of this man, having my daughter kidnapped, my husband missing, and no sleep all night can really push your buttons. "That's it! Somebody hand me my frying pan!" I shouted indignantly, stomping over to him, yet knowing that I could never really accomplish menacing no matter how hard I tried. (Having long, blonde hair will do that to you."
"My humblest apologies, your highness," he grumbled.
"Yeah, right! What do you have against my magic? I heal people! Is that so bad? Did you ever think that it's not some kind of curse for one minute?"
"Your majesty, wouldn't you call what is going on outside a curse?" he retorted.
Sick and tired of him, I held up a lock of hair. "I will use this," I warned, knowing that besides being a lasso, my hair wasn't really a weapon, but he didn't know that. Quickly, he walked away, possibly to go turn more of my people against me. He had been planning some kind of uprising in the past few hours, clearly not happy with me or how I was handling things. I knew he was planning a group to go out and find Elsa themselves, but so far, not too many people had volunteered, so I tried to ignore it for the moment and hoped that it would go away once this whole thing died down.
I dropped my hair, leaned against a wall, and sighed, my eyes starting to drift shut. I was completely exhausted. I began to slide down the wall until ending in a slump on the floor. No one would mind if I napped for just a second. My limbs feeling too heavy to move, I simply curled up right there on the floor, wrapping my hair around me for a blanket.
I couldn't have slept for more than a minute or two when the huge double doors burst open, and a cold wind washed over me. I shot up at the sound, hugged myself to keep warm, and ran to the main hall, hoping more than anything that it was Jack flying through those doors with Elsa trailing behind, smiling, but all I saw was an empty shell of what used to be my husband. I could only stand there numbly, watching him trudge his way over to me. He looked the same on the outside, but I knew the inside was all hollow. He was too empty to smile or cry or speak or even look up at me. I didn't know what to say, so I hugged him tightly, praying that something would happen, but his body remind stiff, cold, and unresponsive to mine. In fact, the hug actually hurt.
I pulled away and looked at what he held in his hands: Elsa's sharp crown. I gasped, took it in my hands, and felt the tears begin to run down my cheeks. "No...are you...are you alright?" No response. "Are you okay? Jack, say something."
"She didn't want to come back..." he started to mumble.
"I...I understand that, but are you going to be okay? Jack...Jack look at me." I tried to cup his face and my hand to turn it to me, but I couldn't move him. It was like pushing on a statue.
"She refused...and Pitch...she was working with Pitch...she attacked me...Elsa...my own daughter...she...she attacked...and I...I couldn't..." Jack continued to ramble, continuing to worry me.
"Jack, you promised me that you wouldn't come back hurt, remember? Please, I understand. We'll fix this we will, but I need you." He did nothing but continue to go on and on about the same thing, completely dumbstruck and in shock. He was having some sort of breakdown, and I was terrified. "Jack? Jack, please! Jack Frost! Jack Frost, you look at me right now and answer me! Are you alright?"
"Will you stop asking that!" he snapped finally. I felt the frost spread under my toes as he spoke. "I'm not bruised or bloody! I'm fine, see? Stop asking me that! There are things a little bit more important that that right now!" He started to float away, but I caught his shoulder and held him back. "Rapunzel, I'm-"
"No," I sobbed. "No you're not. You're shutting me out, Jack. I can't take it anymore. Elsa shut me out, Anna has been hiding all night, my kingdom is being turned against me. Don't shut me out. You're all I have left, Jack." I let my hand fall, and I collapsed to the floor, overcome with exhaustion and emotion. "Please, don't shut me out." My voice was barely above a whisper, but I knew he heard it because immediately he flew to me and hugged me, trying to comfort me, and we cried together again, out in the openness of the great hall, both of us broken. We were a broken family, and we knew it. It had been that way for so long, but neither of us had tried to mend the bond until now, and I think we were both wondering if it was too late.
"I'm sorry," he cried. "I'm sorry for scaring you like that. I broke my promise."
I dried my eyes and dared to hope again. "No, not yet. You still haven't gone to see Anna. Try to fix things with her. Please?"
"I will," he said, new determination in his voice. Maybe he wasn't as broken as I thought he was. He just needed love, something that he had been starved of for so long. I smiled, glad that I had been the one to find him. Jack kissed me and flew off to find Anna.
"She's in Elsa's room!" I called after him, standing up and drying my tears. Maybe our family was broken, but it was still good. It was just a little bit of a fixer-upper, needing a little bit of love to mend all of the broken bonds. I hoped it would all start with Anna and Jack. I hoped that in her good heart she might find a way to forgive us.
Jack
I stood frozen by Elsa's door for the longest time, not quite knowing what to do or say. What if she totally rejected me? What if she had come to the conclusion that seeing me last night was only a figment of her imagination and she stopped believing in me again? Should I knock, or should I just go ahead and open the door? Was dealing with children always this complicated, or was this just my horrible life being, well, horrible again. The one spot of happiness I had found was being crushed before my very eyes.
After a long bout of nervous pacing, I finally opened the door, and knocked my staff on it at the same time. "Um, Anna?" I called, half-afraid that she wouldn't even hear me.
"Hey...Dad..." she said from the other side of the room. The word "dad" sounded awkward on her lips, as if she wasn't quite used to saying it just yet. I feared that it might take a while, but a few of my fears were put to rest. She still believed in me. I was real to her. I drifted over to where she sat on Elsa's bed, wrapped tightly in the blankets. She hadn't changed from her summer dress save for taking out the ribbon and tiara in her hair and allowing it to cascade down her back. She didn't quite look at me as I took a seat next to her.
"Is..is there anything you want to talk about? Anything you want to ask me?"
"A lot, actually," she admitted.
"Is it about the ice powers? Because I'm not quite sure how I got mine, other than some baby teeth memories and vague comments from the moon."
"Wait, what?"
"I'll have to explain that later. There's a whole lot that I need to tell you, now."
"Why?" she asked forcefully.
"What?"
"Why now? Why haven't I been told any of this before? That's what I don't understand about this whole thing. I don't care where the powers came from. Well, I do, but not more than I care about being shut out. Why wouldn't you or Mom or Elsa tell me anything?"
"The first thing you need to know is that it was all for your safety," I began.
"My safety?" she parroted incredulously, standing up and beginning to pace the floor angrily. Her emotions were just as high-strung as everyone else's, and I had just pushed her over the edge, too. Oh, would the outbursts never end? "What on earth was so bad that you lied to me my entire life to keep me safe from it? You lied to me! My entire life, I thought you were dead, and now, you expect me to be okay with all of that because it was all for my safety? Tell me what it was! Try to make me understand your messed up logic here!"
I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly, not quite sure what to say next. There was so much to be said. "I confess, nothing seems right about what we did. I didn't like it, either, but the thing is, uh...what you have to understand is..."
"What?"
I laughed nervously, knowing that I would be hated for what I said next. "I'm not really sure how to say it, actually. Haha..."
Anna gave a ridiculously over the top groan and fell face first onto the mattress beside me, muttering something unintelligible into the sheets. I couldn't help but laugh. Anna was still the same, dramatic girl that I knew and loved. We just stayed like that for a while, stealing glances at each other when we weren't looking, until a thought, a crazy, random, wonderful thought entered my head. "But I can show you!" I chuckled, prodding her with my staff.
What she mumbled into the sheets next sounded something like, "What are you talking about?" That, or it was some kind of obscene comment. I stuck to the first idea.
"Just go put on some Winter clothes and be back here in five minutes." Anna looked at me skeptically, but to my great amazement, she trusted me and did what I said. (I reminded myself later to give her a lesson on taking orders from strangers, not that I was a stranger, but she was a trusting soul, and I would like for her to not have that trust damaged in some way.)
Anna came back in a long sleeved, blue and black embroidered dress accessorized with snow boots and a thick, magenta cloak. Under the snow cap that she was having trouble tying on with gloved hands, she wore her hair in two braids, the platinum streak plain and visible on the right one. I wondered how she would react to the story behind that streak. Knowing her, probably very loudly. "Now, climb on my back," I instructed.
"I think I'm a little too old for piggy-back rides," she grumbled.
I rolled my eyes, a move that she copied. "Just do it."
"Okay..." She did what she was told, and I groaned under her weight.
"When did you get fat?" I teased. She smacked me upside the head. "Okay, I get it. Just don't do that while we're flying okay? It might throw me off balance."
"Wait, what?"
"Oh, and you're going to want to hold on. Wouldn't want you falling off," I continued, loving her reaction to everything that I said. It was so nice to actually be talking to her again, even if she was freaking out a little.
"Wait, flying what?"
"C'mon, Anna. We're going to get away from all of this for a while. A little field trip. For the first time in forever, we're going to have a little fun." I smiled back at her and nearly laughed at her flustered expression.
"Um, I'm still stuck on the FLYING part!"
"Ready or not, here we go!" I shot out the window into the icy air, Anna screaming the entire time. Ah, family.
(Man, do I love writing this! I've done three chapters in, like, a day! Please continue reviewing. You have no idea how wonderful it is to hear your helpful comments. I'd like to address a few of them now, if you don't mind. This first one is to a lot of you: I'm not really pushing an ElsaxPitch ship, but go ahead and treat it like that if you want, but also, check the K+ rating before you tell me to do something with it, please. Really, I like to treat it as more of a twisted father/daughter relationship, but by all means, ship. Ship if you must. I don't care. Another thing, yes, more RotG characters will be popping up. Sooner than you think, actually. I leave you with that for now. Go review!)
