They met the next morning like old friends.
"Let's go somewhere today," she said with a knowing smile on her face.
"Where to?"
"You'll see." She grabbed his wrist and ran across the snow covered plain until they hit the road, and even though he was beside her the entire race, she didn't let go, nor did she notice his ears turn crimson or the burning in her thighs from running so far and so fast.
They stopped the moment their feet touched the asphalt, hunched over and beaming, panting like dogs.
"What … now?" Jack gasped.
Rapunzel looked up and her smile widened. "Now …" she took a deep breath. "... we walk."
His eyes widened. Still panting, he rasped, "Where to?"
She managed a laugh and shook her head. "You'll see." She began her journey down the road, a cold breeze pushing her forward. She whipped her head around, and he saw the way the wind made her hair dance, and the way the sun's rays made her dark hair seem golden in the morning light. "Still curious?" she called, but she didn't slow her pace. She turned her head back around and craned her neck to spy on the clouds, an old habit she'd held onto ever since she'd first seen the floating lights. The sky was an expanse of dreams, she'd decided. And someday, everyone's wishes would find their way to the stars. She was sure of it.
He'd caught up by now, and was walking beside her with his hands stuffed deep inside his jacket pockets. Looking over at her, he became curious. "Punzie?" he asked.
"Hm?" she was looking ahead of her now, to the place where the road hit the horizon.
"Favourite colour?"
Ah. She saw that their little question game was far from over.
Rapunzel leaned to her left and ruffled his white hair with a smile on her face, saying, "What other colour is there?" She bent down along the edge of the road and gathered a fistful of snow. She threw open hands into the sky and tilted her head back to watch the ice crystals fall like rain upon the two.
He chuckled, and they kept on walking.
"Tell me a secret." she said.
"I have plenty of secrets." he replied; he wouldn't look at her this time. He'd tell her when the time was right – if the moment ever came. Maybe.
Probably not.
"And that wasn't a question." He added.
"Alright then," she looked over at him, curious. "Will you share a secret with me, Jack?" She didn't break her gaze as he spoke; she noticed that he was averting her eye.
"Well, I don't know my middle name." he looked distant.
For some reason, she didn't know what to say. He'd told her something that pained him – she saw it in his eyes; it was the same gaze her reflection bore in the mirror each day, and even though Rapunzel didn't know why such a little fact haunted him or how it had come to be, she felt comfort in the fact that he had shared it with her. And it made her glad.
So she nodded and looked to the road again, waiting for him to speak.
"My turn?" he asked.
"I believe so,"
"Will you share a secret with me, Punzie?"
She smiled. "I believe so." she said again. Rapunzel hesitated for a moment.
Promise me you won't laugh, she thought. Promise me you won't judge me or tell a soul or walk away pretending that none of this ever happened. I don't want to lose you, too. And these silent pleas made her wonder why she couldn't – no, wouldn't – tell him that she was simply afraid of the dark or liked the smell of vinegar or liked to make wishes on stars and dandelion petals. Why tell him anything? But when you open up to somebody, it's a little like a test. Like a summer exam to see whether they'll stick by you through your flaws and your outbursts and those weird little things about you that make you an individual. So she told him something she had never told anyone before.
"I …" a moment's hesitation, and then, "You're familiar with the great legends, right? Like the bedtime stories you eventually grow out of when you figure out that you're too old to believe in the things you can't see."
Jack's pace slowed considerably and he stared at her, stunned. Am I in any of those stories? he wondered. He knew she had more to say, so he nudged her gently. "Go on," he said.
"I didn't know what to think for a long while after I saw him," she continued. "I was little and looking out my bedroom window waiting for the lanterns they cast every year. I don't know how much of the memory is real – I was pretty young, after all – but I remember being overwhelmed by this sudden – this chilling air."
She was fidgeting now, eyeing the ground like a predator.
"And when I looked around I saw someone – a legend from one of those fairytales."
His heart was beating so hard and fast he could feel it through his chest like a drum.
"Who did you see?" the words were almost a whisper
Rapunzel noticed that the pair was no longer walking, and as a cold breeze swept the air she became aware of the ice particles lashing at her skin with each breath of the wind. She turned and focused on his eyes, this barren expanse of blue, paler than any sky she had seen. And the memory lingered in that icy sea, a lonely, faded memory that she couldn't quite understand. But she remembered those eyes. Those brilliant, bright lights amidst a dark sky.
She took a deep breath and spoke.
"I saw you."