Chapter Four:

Jack strolled down the street towards Gothel's tower, his staff leaning on his right shoulder. The sun was shining and he had made it his mission to find out whom he'd seen in the back room.

Jamie had tried to convince Jack to take him along, but Jack had convinced him to stay behind and play with Sophie. As much as he loved spending time with the kid, he didn't think Jamie would enjoy searching around town for some girl Jack had seen.

He approached the familiar structure of the restaurant: a simple yellow-white brick building with a tall tower sprouting out of the blue-shingled roof.

Jack shaded his eyes from the sun's glare as he looked up at the single window near the very top of the tower. As far as he could tell the shutters were closed. Looking back to the door in front of him, he felt himself smirk. Time for a bit of fun. He thought as he twisted the handle on the door.

Despite it being mid-morning on a weekday, the restaurant has some decent business going on. Small pairs and a few couples sat at the little round tables where sunlight pooled on the floor in bright little circles.

Jack quickly maneuvered his way to a booth near the back, hopefully where someone wouldn't catch him slip away into the back room and start peaking around.

If anyone asked he'd say he'd been looking for the bathroom, flash them a cocky grin and they'd be putty in his hands. That is, is they were a girl. If a guy caught him snooping around… it might not work out so smoothly.

He snickered at the idea. Even if someone did catch him, he could easily slip out of trouble. A few years on the street did that to kids.

After smoothly passing the last booth without so much as a second glance he reached the back room. He turned around; someone who would happen to glance at him would just see a white haired boy leaning against the wall. Then, turning his hip slightly, he popped the door open with a quiet creak and slipped inside.

The room was dark and filled with boxes and bags of fruit and vegetables. Several crates were stacked up in organized little stacks and filled to the brim with hazel nuts. He tapped the crate lightly with the end of his staff.

Nothing unusual there.

He turned his head to the left. Aha he thought, grinning as tucked the staff against the crook of his neck. A small stairway curled up into a dark… space.

In all the horror stories he'd heard from his time in the streets taught him not to go into dark places, especially dark staircases that lead up into dark towers.

But I never was one for rules. He thought as he darted up the staircase and into the thick abyss above.

Rapunzel ran the hairbrush through her thick masses of golden hair. She was nearly done, even if it had taken her almost all morning. With a content sigh, she pulled the brush past the ends of her hair.

She thrummed her fingers against her knee. She sat cross-legged on her four-poster bed, her hair all covering the room in one organized stream of gold. It wrapped all the way around the perimeter of her room at the top of the tower, hanging off little hooks attached to the walls that kept her from tripping all over it.

She flopped back on the bed, sinking into the pink sheets. A familiar cooing sound found it's way to her ears despite being smothered by the folds of the sheets.

The familiar green form of Pascal crawled up into her hand. She gave him a sad smile. "Now, what do you want to do?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

With a wide toothless smile, he pointed at the window with his skinny tail. "Oh no, I don't think so." Rapunzel laughed, sitting up and letting Pascal coil his tail around her fingertip as she lifted him into her lap. "I like it in here, and so do you." She pointed at him as he stuck his tongue out at her.

"Come on, it's not that bad." She gestured to the painting covered walls. Sunlight filled the room through a window in the ceiling. The shelves were filled with bottles and bowls of paints and glazes. A few unfinished candles lay on her desk next to an open cookbook.

Pascal didn't respond and just crawled onto her shoulder, sighing meekly. "Don't be like that, Pascal!" She whined, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and walking across the room to the window.

Her mother forbid her to open it during the day, and at night when she was allowed to open it all the lights had to be off. Or else she'd run the risk of being discovered. Rapunzel ran her fingertip along the seam in-between the two doors. When is my life going to begin? She wondered.

She felt a comforting hand on her neck. She looked down and smiled at Pascal, who was giving her a wide-eyed sympathetic smile. Using a slender finger, she gently rubbed the top of his head with her finger.

She'd spent her whole life alone in the tower without a single friend, besides Pascal and her mother. She knew that her mother only did it to protect her… after all, she thought, running her fingers through her silken strands of hair. A gift like mine… she paused, letting the strands slip from her fingers. It needs to be protected.

Suddenly, a soft clattering noise echoed from outside her bedroom door. Rapunzel jumped and quickly looked down to Pascal. "Mother doesn't come up until dinner time." She said urgently. She quickly began to scurry around the room looking for a place to hide.

Ruffians? Thugs? She wondered as she scrambled about. Quickly she grabbed a metal frying pan before gathering her long hair over her arm, then swinging it like a lasso before tossing it up to a hook on the wall.

Then, she pulled herself up, using her knees to lift pull her up the hair like a rope. She nestled herself onto a wood beam that supported the roof of the tower. Gripping her frying pan tightly she took a deep breath and prepared herself.

Just as the door clicked open.

Toothiana held her purse tightly in her small hands as she looked up at the ship in front of her. It was not overly elegant, but it really was quite large. She wrung her hands against the handle of her bag. She didn't know why she felt so nervous; she was just meeting up with Aster to look at some of his paintings, so there was nothing she should be worried about. They were just two friends spending some time together.

Taking a deep breath, she began walking up the plank that served as a sort of walkway up from the docks to the ship. When she reached the top she looked around. There were a few men standing around, sipping out of tin cups or playing poker, using a large crate as a table.

Tooth's heels clicked against the wood almost deafeningly. She felt very out of place with her expensive dress and shoes that seemed to scream 'look at me!' among all the simpler clothes that the sailors wore.

"Oh." Toothiana gasped as she felt someone bump into her shoulder. "I'm sorry." She said quickly.

"Oh no, that was my fault- I wasn't looking where I was going and um… It's-it's just my fault." A rather scrawny boy said. His long brown hair hung to his eyebrows, and had slight flip to it. His freckles were spread all over his face. His forest green eyes were turned down, but his eyes seamed to gleam with a sort of… curiosity.

Toothiana's gaze caught a small leather bound notebook that had tumbled to the ground. She quickly bent down and picked it up.

"Oh ha ha~" The boy said nervously as he reached out to take the book, but not before a gust of wind flipped open the leather cover and turned a few of the pages to reveal a very detailed drawing of a sort of… contraption, it almost looked like a wing from a fantasy book, something a dragon would have-

He took the book from her and slipped it behind his belt nervously. "I know it's kind of weird-"

"No, no it was really interesting. What was it exactly was it?" Toothiana asked, tilting her head, a small smile on her face.

He ran his fingers through his hair, "well it's sort of like a prosthetic leg, but for- well, I'm actually not supposed to say anything, but-"

"The Night Fury?" Tooth suddenly interjected. It made sense, the Night Fury was supposedly a creature that no one had ever seen before, and Toothiana had spent countless hours fawning over hundreds, of thousands of different animal teeth.

Never in her life had she seen an animal like that.

The boy shrugged, a helpless smile on his face. He obviously wanted to say more, and if it was the Night Fury that was on that page, then Pitch had probably forced him to sign a contract forcing him to reveal nothing before opening night.

"Don't worry." Tooth said, holding up her hands in surrender. "If my husband has you in some kind of contract I won't force you to talk."

"Oh!" The boy said, his eyebrows shooting straight up. "Y-you're Toothiana? Uh, hi, I guess." He stuttered, jerking his arm in a stiff awkward wave.

"You know, you could always tell me your name," Tooth suggested, offering him a warm smile as she tilted her head to the side.

"It's-"

"Hiccup!" A familiar Australian-accented voice shouted. Toothiana looked over Hiccup's shoulder to see Aster, hulking around a huge bag of… Toothiana actually didn't know what it was, but it was so large that he had to carry in on his shoulder.

"Hello Aster," Toothiana said, stepping around Hiccup and smiling brightly.

"Tooth? I didn't expect you to be here so early." He grunted as he dropped the sack onto the hard wood below his feet.

Tooth bit her lip, "I'm sorry, do you want me to come back later? Because It's fine, really-"

"Oi, Toothy," Bunny suddenly interrupted. Toothiana snapped her mouth shut. She must have been babbling, she always babbled, especially when she was nervous-

She felt his warm hands press down on her shoulders. She snapped out of her stupor, and became suddenly very aware that his shirtsleeves had been torn off and Bunny had very… nicely toned arms.

Her cheeks flushed and Bunny quickly stepped away, clearing his throat. "I-uh, you- you don't need to apologize." Tooth just nodded shyly, twisting her grip on her purse.

"Well, uh, Bunny I'm gonna just-" Hiccup pulled a much smaller bag over his own shoulder, "drop this off at the grounds, alright?"

Bunny nodded and Hiccup gave Toothiana a quick wave. She returned the gesture and his gangly figure disappeared down the gangplank.

Toothiana turned around and smoothed the front of her red coat. "Well," She smiled mischievously at him as she quirked an eyebrow, "didn't you promise to show me some of your paintings?"

Bunny chuckled and nodded, rubbing the slight scruff on his chin. "I 'spose I did,now didn't I?" Toothiana giggled and followed him down into the ship, bumping her hip gently against his.

It had been a friendly gesture, so she didn't know why she suddenly felt so guilty.

He led her down a small poorly lit hall to a slim door that he had to turn sideways to fit into, since his shoulders were so broad.

Toothiana followed him into the cluttered room. A small bed was built into the wall with the covers strewn about. Bunny quickly tried to straighten them up, but only succeeded in making them look even messier.

"Sorry about the mess, sheila." Bunny said as he quickly kicked a dirty shirt under the bed.

Toothiana wasn't listening; the crinkly scraps of paper that covered the entire surface of a wooden desk transfixed her. Most were pencil sketches of flowers or animals, all with amazing detail.

There were several pictures of Sophie, complete with her wide grin, chubby cheeks, and shaggily cut hair. Toothiana felt herself smiling as she flipped to another sketch.

She recognized Jack Frost's cocky grin instantly, his arm was slung over a younger boy's shoulder, and he had a great smile, revealing a gap where one of his front teeth should have been.

"That's Jamie, Sophie's older brother." Bunny said, leaning over her shoulder as he pointed at the brown haired boy. "And that's Frost,"

"I remember him," Toothiana interrupted.

Bunny chuckled, "The ladies usually do." Tooth smacked his chest lightly with the back of her hand, which only seemed to make the situation all the funnier.

"Come on, Bunny, he's just a much younger than me-"

"You were probably younger than Pitch." Bunny muttered under his breath. For a moment, Toothiana thought about pretending to have not heard him, she did that with Pitch sometimes, it helped avoid arguments. It was probably the smarter thing to do…

"That was different." Toothiana said coolly as she picked up a painting. This one had a farm on it, with golden streams of grain waving in the wind. A cute little cottage was nestled in the hillside not too far from a big red barn. Several little dots were painted cluttered together, a family. This was his home.

There was a beat of silence. Toothiana cleared her throat before grabbing a small round thing covered with strings and feathers. She felt a small smile pull on her lips as she examined it, trying to figure out what it was.

"It's a dream catcher." Bunny said, tracing the strings that crisscrossed like a spider web.

"That seems like a funny thing to catch." Toothiana said, as their fingers brushed for a moment.

"It's supposed to protect you from nightmares." Bunny clarified, smiling down at her, "These strings are woven like a net," He traced the threads with his finger tip, "The bad dreams are too big to slip through the spaces, but good dreams are small enough to slip through."

Tooth raised an eyebrow, "It seems a little backwards that dreams are small? I always thought dreams were supposed to be incredibly big." She passed the dream catcher off into his hands.

Bunny turned the small object over in his big palms as he smirked at her. "Maybe…" He replied, setting the dream catcher down on the desk.

"What do you mean, 'maybe'?" Toothiana crossed her arms and looked up at him curiously.

"It's nothin'." Bunny smiled, shaking his head as he looked down.

"No, tell me." Toothiana insisted intently.

"Fine," Aster said, pausing before he continued, "I was just thinking that maybe…" He looked down at her with bright green eyes, as if he was reassuring himself that she wouldn't laugh.

Toothiana stopped smiling and looked at him seriously. "Maybe?"

"Well, all dreams start out small, don't they?" He rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he looked at her. "Then they grow into… I don't know… more?"

Toothiana's eyes widened as she looked at him, Aster seemed to be different when he talked about the dreams. Almost as though he were at peace…

Tooth nodded. "That makes sense…" She said softly as she glanced back down. There was a painting, much more abstract than the others. It was filled with swirls of greens, golds, and purples that seemed to flow in a blooming design. "This one's my favorite," She said, handing it to him.

"Mine too." He replied as he examined the piece.

"What's it called?" Tooth asked, looking up to meet his gaze. His strong jaw, his rough, grungy appearance… His eyes. Every time she saw him, she found herself looking into his eyes. It's a little funny, actually…

Bunny looked back at her, a far off look on his face. He seemed surprised she'd even asked. It might have been the first time someone had ever been interested in his art… It just may have been the first time anyone had ever been interested in how he felt.

Aster took a deep breath and then he said, "It's called 'Hope'."

Jack stepped inside the circular room. Sunlight seemed to be the only light source, so the corners of the room were shrouded in darkness. The wood creaked under his feet as he stepped around a desk covered with little bowls of paint and various books.

There was a large bed with pink blankets; little golden vines crawled up the sides of the headboard. Tiny flowers bloomed off into different directions, but when Jack leaned in closer, lightly tracing a petal with his finger, he saw that it wasn't a flower at all. It was an intricately painted sun.

"Huh-" He said, just as he heard a small creak from the rafters above his head. He whipped around, his heart beating quickly as he swung his staff up, almost like he was holding a rifle. "Hello?" He called, his blue eyes flickering from the pottery wheel next to the closed window to the guitar that rested against the –very colorfully painted- wall.

There were no more sounds, except for the quiet chirping of birds just outside the open skylight. Maybe I just imagined it… He wondered, lowering his staff. Jack ran his fingers through his hair; maybe this whole endeavor had been pointless-

"I-I know why you're here." A quiet voice stuttered. Jack looked up, scanning the ceiling intently, looking for any sign of someone hiding in the darkness.

A sign like the tip of a tiny foot peaking out from behind a wooden beam supporting the ceiling.

Jack opened his mouth to speak just as the voice quickly added, "and I'm not afraid of you!"

Jack slowly kneeled down, setting his staff on the ground gently. "That's great!" He called to the shadowy figure huddled up above him, "You don't need to be afraid of me, I promise.

There was a brief pause and the sound of quiet whispering. Jack strained to hear, but all he could make out was a hushed "I think we can trust him," then "he put down the stick."

There was a beat of silence.

"O-" She paused, "open your mouth." He caught a flash of a face leaning out from behind the wooden pillar, light skin, golden hair, big green eyes that looked at him curiously before darting back into hiding.

"Wait, what?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows. He must have heard her wrong because there was no way she just told him to-

"Go on," She said, her voice feigning confidence as she appraised him, "or I will use this." She lifted something up that reflected the sunlight coming in from the window straight into Jack's eyes.

He squinted and lifted up his hand to shade his face, "Hey!" He complained. Jack sighed when the light didn't move from his eyes, "alright, alright." He finally rose up his hands in surrender before he opened his mouth wide. The glaring light disappeared and he heard more hushed whispering.

Shhhhfffffftttt then there was the sound of bare feet tapping against the wooden floor. He could see a darkened figure standing just outside the line of sunlight. Jack heard her take a deep breath, and then, she stepped out into the light.

Her golden hair caught the rays of the sun and shimmered in the light. Her eyebrows where drawn together over a pair of wide green eyes that sized him up, looking straight into him. Or at least that's what it seemed like. She had pink cheeks and rosebud lips that were –at the moment- slightly parted.

She was beautiful.

Jack thought he heard a muffled voice say something, but he wasn't sure. The girl lifted the object in her hand up and held it like someone would hold a bat. It snapped him out of his revere.

"Who are you, and how did you find me?" The girl said, stepping forward. She had no shoes on, which Jack thought was kind of cute. She was almost like a little kid.

Jack blinked before saying, "My name," He paused and smirked and stuck his hands in his pocket before answering, "is Jack Frost."

A small green lizard of sorts crawled out of the girl's long blonde hair and studied Jack thoroughly.

Jack paused then asked, "Were you the girl I saw last night?" The girl's mouth dropped in surprise for a moment before she quickly regained her composure, standing up straight and pretending to not have heard him.

"You didn't answer my question, Jack Frost." The girl said darkly, obviously trying to be intimidating. Jack fought the urge to laugh at the dark expression on her face. It seemed so out of place on a person who seemed like they'd normally always be happy.

"I went up the stairs." Jack replied, "That's all." His blue eyes widened with sincerity, "I promise that I'm not here to hurt you."

The girl's eyebrows relaxed as she looked down at the green amphibian perched on her shoulder. The creature shrugged, but pointed at Jack menacingly with his tail, as if to say, 'I'm watching you'.

"Now how about you tell me your name, or would you rather I just called you Blondie?" Jack smirked as he saw her shoulders relax; there was even a faint smile on her face.

"It's Rapunzel," she answered, tucking her frying pan underneath one arm. Jack took a moment to step closer, Rapunzel instantly jumped back and whipped out her frying pan, nearly clobbering Jack on the side of his head with it's rather sharp edge.

"Aigh! Easy there." Jack shouted as he leaped away. As soon as Jack regainsed his balance he opened his arms wide, trying to look as harmless as possible. "I need you to trust me, alright?"

Rapunzel held his gaze intensely for a moment before she finally sighed and set down her frying pan. "I'm sorry about… you know, almost hitting you in the face."

"I think I'll learn to forgive you…" Jack teased as he walked up to the blonde girl. They were face to face now. The sunlight caught her hair and seemed to make her light green eyes glow. "So tell me Punzie," Jack said mischievously as he leaned in closer, "was it you I saw yesterday?"

A/N: I really didn't want to get this out late, so I didn't have time to review it before posting, ahahaha *dies*. But anyways, as always, tell me if I'm out of character! This is my first time writing Punz or Hiccup and I'd really appreciate the advice. :)

Please REVIEW and I love you all! Criticism is welcome :)