Chapter 5

[Jack]

After the snowball fight, Elsa had almost completely transformed around him. She laughed freely, joked, talked ( she just didn't shut up now), and even freely used magic. He learned she was slightly allergic to flowers, loved the color blue, was obsessed with anything chocolate related, and believed geese were the spawn of Satan. Almost every field training ended up in an epic snow battle. Frozone was helping them discover the extents of their powers, each class brought something new to the table. The two of them were an even match at the moment, though they rarely had snowball fights against each other, rather they worked together to try to beat Frozone. ( They had not yet won. Not even once, not even almost). "Dude it was so awesome," Jack recounted to Hiccup, " Frozone is such a beast man, he literally made the colosseum around us, and then sat like Caesar as we tried to get up to him past his army of snow creatures. I almost flew out and got him from the outside but then he saw me and made a ceiling right from the spot I almost got out from."

"Ugh your field training sounds so much better than mine, Zazu doesn't let us do anything. Toothless got so bored he almost ate one of the training sheep. He has a bit of a bored snacking problem we need to work on. But man I still cant believe you got Elsa to use her powers. I've known her since freshman year and none of the teachers could even get her to take the damn gloves off, much less make a snowflake."

" My presence has been known to cause wonders. Yeah but she's annoyingly good considering you all say she's never used her powers before." Hiccup began helping Jack to strategize for the next battle using his knowledge of flying. This eventually led to an intense debate about who would win in a fight: Toothless or Frozone with Jack's flight. The debate continued to the table where everyone began putting in their words of wisdom, though no-one seemed to be on Frozone's side except Jack and Kristoff. Mid-debate Jack felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He checked it to find Elsa had sent him a video of a man attempting to ice skate, then flailing around with such determination not to fall before landing flat on his back. He burst out laughing and showed it around the table, but Anna just looked at him with a half- hearted smile.

"S-S-She talks to you?" The red head asked softly.

"Yeah, she's really cool, super funny. We went to the park this one time and…"

"She hangs out with you?" The redhead interrupted, a pained look in her eyes. Jack didn't know what, but clearly he had said something wrong.

"Umm, yeah, I was actually gonna go catch up with her in a bit, why?" He asked starting to be a little concerned but still hoping for the best.

"Oh nothing," the girl responded looking at her twiddling thumbs, "Did she happen to say anything about me?"

"Umm… not really…sorry… I can ask.."

"No, thats okay, I don't want to impose,"

"No really," he said genuinely, " We're actually going to the cafe across the street after school, you're more than welcome to…"

"No," the red head said looking at him seemingly dejected, "You're the first person she's opened up to in years. I haven't seen her this happy in so long. Just please don't let anything ruin that, not even me, okay?"

Jack simply nodded his head. He didn't know what was going on, but he would sure as hell find out. Shouldn't be too hard considering he and Elsa sat next to each other every class, and talked for a fair amount of time outside of it too, he would eek it out of her eventually. After school the two of them headed over to a nearby coffee shop to work on an applications project together. On the way there Elsa began explaining to him her newest development where some of her sculptures would animate without her thinking about moving them, they were just alive.

"Hmm. So other than Ice Queen Elsa the Dress Maker, we can add Life Bringer to your ever growing list of titles?"

"Oh please, you're just jealous,"

"Frostbite, I can fly, I choose that over dressmaking any day, although I would look stunning in one."

"That can be arranged,"

"Dont you dare….well I mean as long as the dress doesn't come to life, that would be awkward on soooo many levels."

"Shut up" she said giving him a friendly shove, to which he let loose a gust of wind, blowing some snow at her and unleashing some of her hair from its braid. Her eyes twinkled even as she tried to scrunch up her face in anger. He noticed little snow flakes falling around him and looked up to see his own personal snow cloud over his head.

"Hey!" He was about to say, but the voice that came was much higher than his, and said with a very different tone and context. He turned and waved at the approaching Anna, but noticed Elsa go eerily still next to him, he looked to see her face stricken with panic. Anna's face fell, as she too watched her sister's reaction, but Jack's attention had turned to something else. The single cloud that had been above his head was now expanding and beginning to swirl out of control.

"Elsa!" He shouted in warning but she didn't seem to hear him, her eyes still locked on her sister. He looked over to Anna questioningly but the other girl simply shrugged her shoulders equally terrified and helpless. He grabbed the blonde's shoulders and looked her straight in the eye, gently shaking her, " Elsa!", she seemed to snap out of her trance and looked up at the clouds and then at him horrified.

"No…no" she cried before pulling out of his grasp and looking around at her work clearly unsure what to do. Think Jack Think! He launched himself in to the air closer to the cloud, which was now ascending as it expanded, and he began churning the wind in the opposite direction, attempting to dissipate the growing storm as much as he could. It worked a little, but the storm was continuing to grow more violent fairly quickly. He looked down to see Elsa running in the opposite direction of where they had been, Anna beginning to go after her. He touched down next to the red head,

"What's happening?!"

"I don't know! I just thought… I dont know, but we can't leave her alone, not now!"

"I'll go talk to her," he said, Anna began to protest but Jack cut in,

" I don't know why, but she doesn't seem to be controlling her powers very well right now, she cant hurt me, but you… just get inside okay?"

Anna nodded at him and he took off after Elsa. He called her name to the wind and it carried him to her. She was still running, her sleeves pulled over her hands, arms crossed with her hands shoved in her armpits. He coasted next to her once again as he had weeks ago at their first snowball fight.

"Elsa, what's going on?"

Rather than responding she simply kept running, zigzagging in a silent effort to lose him.

"You can't outrun me Frostbite,"

She threw a few harmless shards of ice his way as she turned a corner.

"You leave me no choice," he said and he swooped down and lifted her up, she yelped at the sudden loss of the ground and flailed her arms and legs, as they ascended higher.

"LET ME GO!"She shouted. The blizzard of flurries thickened, clearly this was not helping.

"Okay" he shrugged and let her fall, her scream echoing, he fell at the same pace as her however and caught her after a few feet, now facing her, she clung to his shirt.

He couldn't help but chuckle a little, " Don't worry frostbite, I wont let anything happen to you. Now you need to calm down and take control of this storm."

"Jack I can't…."

"Yes, you can."

"You don't get it, I haven't used my powers as much as you have. I don't know how. There is no way I can!"

" Elsa, you are one of the most powerful people I've ever met, I've seen you do it before and you can do it now. Feel it inside yourself. You've done things you've never done before in class, just do the same thing now. You know how to control it. You can do it." He said encouragingly.

"I…I…" He could see her looking around at the storm, terrified and overwhelmed by herself, by her own capability. He held her face and touched his forehead against hers, forcing her to look at him. He looked in to the deep ocean blue of her eyes, so vastly different, from the pale contrast of everything else. He stared in to them and lost himself but vaguely heard himself saying,

"Don't look at it, look at me, Okay?Uhhh…we are… We are in class! Yes! We are in class and uhh… we need toooo… be able to find Frozone around us. You started it to hide us, but now we need to come out. So, we need to clear this storm to beat him. Try anything you want, you can't hurt me Frostbite."

He saw her slowly shake her head okay, she closed her eyes and he noticed her scrunch up her face in concentration. He noticed her nose had tiny little freckles that came together like constellations when she scrunched her face like this. Her lashes were long and dark, draping over her lids like feathers, an beautiful contrast to the platinum blonde on her head. His eyes moved down to stare at her mouth. Dark red lips, on the thinner side but pleasant for her face, it added to the mischievous nature he saw in her at her best times. Suddenly her eyes flew open, and he frantically lifted his head and looked around to make it seem like he hadn't just been intensely staring at her. He noticed the storm had dissipated, the skies around them still gray, but calm, slowly clearing up bit by bit. She looked around breathing hard, astonishment in her eyes.

"I…I did it."

"Told you so," he replied back.

"Shut up" she said but she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him, burying her face in his chest. He floated surprised for a second before slowly wrapping his arms around her and hugging her back.

[Rapunzel]

She was in paradise, color graced everything from the murals on the walls, to the stone carved sculptures and stained glass windows on the tops of all the buildings, to the grand mosaic that made up the grounds of the square. Strings of flowers had been hung above them in a rainbow of colors on the pathway towards the entrance of the square, and several colorful banners hung, advertising different events. Seeing as there wasn't much of a winter here (much to Jack's dismay she had noticed), most of the festival had been set up outside, with a few buildings assigned for very specific programs. Rapunzel had barely been able to control herself on the way there from the hotel. She had never seen so much art strewn about the streets, here everything was a masterpiece, from the portraits and canvases on disply along the pathways, to the buildings themselves with their delicately chiseled and painted flowers and designs and occasional spray paint on the lower walls. Her eyes grew wider and wider as they travelled farther in to the depths of it, giddy to get out of the confines of the bus, and it to the air swirling with color, feeling the raw emotion of each brush and pencil stroke out in the open, free at last.

"Oh I looove art too. I've been waiting for this trip since school started." She heard a now familiar voice say from her right. She couldn't help but roll her eyes, but then she shyly glanced at the seat across from her to see Eugene leaning "casually" against the bus window flirting up a storm. He was contorted in a way that could not have been comfortable, but apparently it was supposed to be appealing. He also had his lips puckered in a really odd fashion that she guessed was also supposed to be attractive but she could not for the life of her figure out how. He frankly looked great normally, really great in fact, but the antics seemed to be working on the other girl who was blushing profusely and even gave him a small peck on the cheek. Rapunzel looked away and shook her head. She didn't know why she felt a tug in her gut at that, she didn't expect anything from him after all. He was just a boy she was helping cheat in a class so that she could be here, nothing less and definitely nothing more. She looked out the window. Today was going to be beautiful and no-one was going to ruin that for her. She took in a deep breath of fresh cool air as she stepped off the bus. She stood amongst the group impatiently as Mr. Rafiki passed out the guides and told them the schedule for the day.

"You must all stay within the stone walls surrounding the town, there will be guards at the gates, so don't even try sneaking out. The clocktower is our meeting point, we meet there for lunch at 12:00 and back again at 8:00 for the bus to take us back to the hotel. Other than that just have fun, let your wings carry you where you wish!"

Eugene sidled up next to her,

"This better be worth my time Blondie."

She smirked to herself eyeing him sideways.

"Oh I'm sure you'll be plenty entertained. You LOOOOOOVE art, remember?" She said and then mocked the way he had puckered his lips on the bus. She laughed as he glared at her.

[Merida]

Merida marveled at the finished bow laying in her hands. Her bow, that she made. The firm glossy wood in her hands, the grip hugging her fingers back. She'd strung it herself as well and her fingers were itching to test it out. Hiccup came up behind her as she stared at it.

"Not bad for your first bow, and hey, now I have one too."

"Ya shoot?"

"Occasionally," he said shrugging, "I'm no 7 time champion or anything, but my dad forced me to try out a lot of weapons before Toothless, and safe to say archery was the better option since it involved very little close contact."

"Oh I'm sure ya could hold yer own,"

"Now maybe, but trust me, back then I was as scrawny as they come. My dad still says that the only reason Toothless probably didn't eat me on sight was because he would have just gotten a mouth full of bones."

She couldn't help but laugh a little, and he smiled.

"We should shoot sometime," she said, " with my help you could be an archer from the sky, definitely a force to be reckoned with. Maybe you'll even get 2nd at a tournament."

"Why not first?"

"Yers truly, can't have ya having a dragon and being the best archer, that's just not fair."

"Well, why wait?"

"Whatdya mean?"

"Well…" Hiccup said looking around and plucking a large and unused dart board off the wall and sticking it on to an old easel dumped there by the art department.

"We have an open field outside, we can take these out for a test run now if you've got some time. That way if anything is wrong we can just leave them here and make the necessary adjustments today or tomorrow. Best to test it, the tournament is only a few weeks away and you coming in second because of my bow is far too high a price to pay."

"Speaking of price!", she reached in to her bag and pulled out an envelope, " here is your payment."

"It's really okay" he said.

"Whatdya mean it's okay? This was our deal, and I will fulfill my end."

"Well," he said scratching the back of his head, " technically I didn't even make it, so it feels weird taking money for it."

"Well then take it for being my teacher."

"I don't know,"

"OH just take it!" She said taking his hand and shoving the envelope in to it. In grabbing his hand her fingers brushed his equally calloused ones and it left them tingling. Weird she thought to herself. He had shoved the envelope in his pant pocket and picked up his bow and slung it around his shoulder, grabbing the easel in both hands.

"Ready?" He asked her.

"But we don't have any arrows," she said. He opened his mouth as if he was about to say something but instead he just put down the easel, put up a finger indicating for her to wait, and went to the back. She heard him rummage around a bit before emerging with a black duffel in his hands.

"In the excitement of finishing the bow I completely forgot about these."

She took the black duffel from him and unzipped it, revealing a set of brand new arrows. Sleek, solid, and the same dark color of her bow, the points perfectly fashioned she presumed to be as aerodynamic as possible. The ends of the arrows had a startling mix of red and orange feathers, most likely from a Hearthwing she guessed; an uncommon bird with feathers that in the sun, gave the bird a fiery glow, a hue that she noticed perfectly matched her hair. As she turned one over in her hand, she noticed at the top etched in to the wood was an "M" within her family symbol.

"I changed the shape of the point a bit from the traditional arrow to minimize air resistance, as well as the angling of the feathers at the end. They should be tough enough to…"

"They're beautiful." She breathed, " Why?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

" You made such a beautiful bow, I figured it was only fair to have a set of arrows that would do it justice. Plus I figured you were good enough that it was about time you have a signature. With these arrows, there'll be no question in anyone's mind about who just beat them."

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" She said so excited that she jumped and threw her arms around him. He paused for a second before hugging her back and saying

"You're very welcome." She absorbed the hug and the feeling of him for a few moments longer than she had intended to before remembering the bow and arrows and jumping down. She grabbed the bow and used her newfound nervous energy to look as giddy as possible holding the arrows.

"Let's try them!" She exclaimed. He swept his arm in an arc and bowed in a grand gesture motioning towards the door.

"After you." He said. Little did she know the motion was to hide his increasingly reddening cheeks.