Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO SweetasTea ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.

Word Count: 5912

AU: Colonial AU

UAs: Ice-skating incident with Jack's sister never happens, Jack doesn't die young

Prompt: She's Not My Girlfriend

Jack peeked up over the edge of the snow fort, looking out through the cluster of trees at the edge of the woods and into the meadow. He snickered to himself, mentally applauding how clever he was. In just a few short minutes, that insufferable Corona girl would be passing through the meadow—and then right past his fort—on her way home from the schoolhouse. Heavens, she was annoying—raising her hand to answer every last question, sucking up endlessly to Mrs. Davensworth, scolding anyone who made the slightest mean comment to a fellow kindergartener like she was their mother. Well, in any case, he was just about to wreak havoc on her perfect little day. And he had snuck out of school early and ran all the way here to build the fort to make sure he could do it.

As soon as he saw a little shape making its way across the meadow and heard the clomp-clomp of boots on snow, he grew giddy with excitement. Snickering, he stole a glance at the vast pile of snowballs he had cleverly hidden behind the walls of his icy fortress.

As she grew closer, he picked out the puffy light blue dress and the perfect little braid of blonde hair sticking out from under the bonnet. She was humming some inane song and smiling into the forest like she was about to summon all the woodland creatures to do her bidding for her, which only made Jack all the more eager to pelt her with snow.

The minute she stepped into the woods, a snowball sailed over the fort and smacked her square in the stomach. She yelped and leapt back, giving Jack a satisfied smirk.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel!" he sneered, popping up from behind the fort. He loved saying her name, mostly because it was so dumb. Who named their daughter after a fairy tale princess?

"Bet your prince can't save you now!" he called out, throwing another snowball. It landed smack across her nose, covering her entire face. She wiped it off with a blue-sleeved arm, her shocked expression having turned to one of pure rage.

"You absolute scoundrel, Jack Overland!" she yelled, curling her tiny hands into fists. In response, he threw another snowball, this one exploding on her shoulder.

"Well, you're a know-it-all goody-two-shoes!" he taunted.

"At least I'm not a booger-eating scamp like you!" He threw another snowball, but this time she ducked, and it landed on the tree behind her. He threw another and another, but to his dismay she kept nimbly dodging his attacks. He had hoped to hit her with a few and then send her running away screaming like a sissy, but that didn't appear to be the case. Instead, she stuck her tongue out at him and stood her ground.

He managed to nail her in the arm after a few missed shots, and she let out a long, frustrated groan. "You know what? You're gonna pay for that, Jack Overland. Two can play at this game!"

She picked up a hunk of snow and, with impressive speed, shaped it into a ball and pelted it straight at Jack's face. He ducked behind his snow fort wall just in time. He attempted to rise up again only to duck down just in time for another snowball to whizz right over the top of his head.

He popped up to find his irritating classmate right in the middle of forming another snowball. He flung two pre-made ones at her before she could even finish.

"Ha!" he taunted. "You're never gonna catch up with me. And you can't even get me back here!" With what sounded like a growl, she chucked her snowball at him. Unfortunately for her, he was once again able to hide behind his wall of snow.

The fight continued, and Jack found that Rapunzel had the ability to pick up and make snowballs at alarming speeds. She was even able to get a few to hit him, even though his fort was enough to protect him most of the time. Despite how much she grinded his gears, he had to admit he was rather impressed that she had stayed in the fight as long as she had, even when he was clearly winning. This girl was not about to give up, that was for sure.

"This isn't even fair!" she whined after a while. "Why don't I get a fort?"

He leaned over the wall of snow and smirked at her. "Because you didn't get here early and make one?"

She crossed her arms and pouted. "You ambushed me! I didn't even get the chance!"

"You're more likely to win if you play dirty," Jack pointed out smugly.

"Oh yeah? You wanna see playing dirty?"

Without warning, Rapunzel surged forward and flung herself over the wall of his fort. She tackled him to the ground before he could do anything and shoved one of the snowballs she had been working on right down his shirt.

"Ahhhhh! That's cold! Stop!"

She hesitated, her goody-two-shoes instinct taking over long enough for him to grab some snow and slide it down the back of her dress. She let out a yelp and snatched the biggest handful of snow she could manage, retaliating far more than Jack had been expecting.

For a while they wrestled in the snow, each desperately trying to gain the upper hand. And by "gain the upper hand" it was, of course, meant "get the other to contract hypothermia."

"Jack!"

Jack let out a groan at the familiar sound of his mother's voice. He tried to wriggle out from under Rapunzel, who had pinned him down and was smirking triumphantly.

"Jack!"

Oh great, it was getting closer. His mother was going to see him being defeated by the most irritating girl in the entire kindergarten class (who was also pretty good at snowball fights, although he'd never say that aloud).

He desperately tried to get free as the footsteps approached, but he was still flailing around fruitlessly by the time his mother arrived. He looked up to see Rapunzel smirking, and he pouted.

"Jack, it's getting late," his mother said. Jack glanced up at the sky, not even realizing it had started to turn the deep blue of twilight.

"Why don't you come home and help me start a fire?" his mother went on. "You must be freezing! Bring your girlfriend if you want."

Jack's face burned. "SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" he screamed, finally managing to shove the annoying female off of him.

Jack's mother didn't look convinced, much to his disgust. "Whatever you say. Come along though, it's getting dark out!"

Jack shakily got to his feet, brushing off the massive chunks of snow stuck to his clothes. He started to follow his mother, and noticed Rapunzel was trailing not far behind.

He turned to glare at her. "You are so not coming to my house," he hissed.

Instead of pouting, Rapunzel gave him a sickeningly sweet smile. "Fine. Sore loser!" She turned and skipped away, leaving him absolutely fuming inside.

Jack sat crouched in the lowermost branch of his favorite birch tree, waiting with barely-concealed excitement. This was going to be the best day of his life! As soon as Rapunzel Corona walked by on the way to the orchard (little goody-goody always insisted on helping her mother pick fruit for the harvest), he was going to pelt her with an entire pailful of acorns. Perhaps Rapunzel had beaten him in a handful of snowball fights over the last three years, but this was one victory she was not going to walk away with.

Two voices drifted over with the autumn breeze, and he rubbed his hands together craftily as he recognized one of them as Rapunzel's. It was beyond him who the other voice belonged to, but it was of little concern. He had spent all day yesterday gathering all those acorns, and now it was nearly time to put them to good use.

A couple minutes later, a familiar blonde annoyance skipped out of the tree cover, and Jack was on her in an instant. Before she knew what was happening, acorns were flying at her left and right, causing her to scream out every time one hit her.

"Jack, you're horrible!" she cried, lifting up her small hands to try and shield her face.

"Whatsa matter, Rapunzel?" he called down mockingly. "Gonna be late to go do boring grown-up stuff? What a loss!"

"Hey! At least I try to help out!" she shot back. "Unlike you, Mr. I'm-gonna-chase-my-dad's-sheep-around-and-make-his-job-harder!"

Jack pouted. "Awwww, but they're so funny when they're all worked up! Bleating and running around like ninnies."

"So not that different from you then, you acorn-throwing idiot?" Rapunzel picked up one of the acorns he had tossed at her and hurled it unexpectedly back at him. It stung as it bounced painfully off of his arm.

"Hey!" He grabbed a handful of acorns and flung them right at Rapunzel's chest, watching them explode off of her like a firework.

"Come on, Jack!"

Jack heaved an inward groan as he realized who the second voice he had heard belonged to. A girl with her red hair in neat pigtails stepped out of the trees, smirking. Mindy Creyton, one of Rapunzel's best friends and also the biggest gossiper in the third grade.

Mindy smirked, clasping her hands behind her back and swaying from side-to-side. "That's no way to romance your girlfriend!" she said in a singsong voice.

"WHAT?" Jack's entire body burned with mortification. "She is NOT my girlfriend!"

"Really?" Mindy made kissy noises. "Because the amount of snowball fights you two have every single winter with just each other would prove otherwise!"

Jack took a break from throwing acorns to cross his arms defiantly. "I just have to show her that I'm a better snowball fighter than she ever will be!"

"That's not true!" Rapunzel shot back. She turned to Mindy. "Why would I ever want that nasty trickster as my boyfriend?"

Mindy gasped, putting a hand over her mouth. "Careful, Punzie! You'll break his secretly-fragile heart!"

"My heart is not secretly fragile," Jack retorted. "And no way is little miss I'm-so-perfect down there my girlfriend!"

"Well, it is a little odd how you never seem to want to throw stuff at any other girl," Mindy pointed out.

Jack looked at his now-half-empty pail of acorns, realizing he was at a loss. He had told himself all day yesterday that every single acorn he picked up had Rapunzel's stupid princess name written all over it, but if he continued, he would just prove Mindy's point. He supposed he could throw some acorns at her in order to disprove the theory that he only threw stuff at Rapunzel, but Mindy Creyton wasn't even worthy of getting hit by an acorn.

"That's only because she's so annoying," he settled for, pelting Rapunzel with another handful of acorns. She glared up at him briefly before stomping back across the clearing and grabbing onto Mindy's arm.

"Come on Mindy, let's get out of here," she growled. She practically dragged her friend away from the birch tree, and Jack made sure to bombard her with as many acorns as was humanly possible until she was entirely out of range.

A cool breeze swayed the long green grass as Jack made his way through the meadow. He was on his way back from the hilly expanse where he helped his father tend to their sheep and he was already exhausted and eager to get home and nap, despite the beautiful summer day.

He paused when he noticed someone sitting in the shade of the maple tree in the center of the meadow. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was Rapunzel Corona, canvas in front of her, paintbrush in hand, and wildflowers braided into her now-quite-long blonde hair. He automatically rolled his eyes, although she wasn't doing anything particularly insufferable right now. In fact, if he was honest with himself, Rapunzel hadn't done anything to particularly annoy him in a long while.

She was busy painting a picture, and apparently had either forgotten an easel completely or not even bothered with one. The square of canvas was right out in front of her, and she was hard at work dabbing it with colors from a little pallet beside her, constantly glancing up at the mountains in the distance and then down at the picture again. There was a small smile on her face…a genuine smile, Jack noticed, not the overly sweet plastered-on one she wore around at school.

He stepped out of sight into the cover of the forest, and found himself watching her paint for a while. It was oddly mesmerizing, seeing her head go up and down between the horizon and the picture and watching the rhythmic brush strokes as she tried to capture the towering Appalachians.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been watching her when he spotted another figure marching across the meadow toward Rapunzel. Rapunzel hadn't noticed Jack, thank god—she'd never let him hear the end of it if she did, probably. As he looked closer at the figure, he recognized the gray dress and tight brunette bun of Mary Weste.

When she reached Rapunzel, she started talking loud and fast—and she didn't sound happy. Rapunzel backed away, pressing herself against the trunk of the maple tree. Mary continued to raise her voice until she was almost yelling, and with each octave the brown-haired girl's voice rose, Rapunzel seemed to shrink farther into herself, cowering against the bark of the tree and looking up at her classmate with fear glinting in her big green eyes.

Jack shuffled uncomfortably where he stood. Something about seeing someone yell at Rapunzel like that made him bristle, although the logical part of his brain told him someone else was probably seeing her for the unbearable goody-two-shoes she really was, and he should be rather pleased by the whole situation. Nonetheless, he couldn't help but feel an inexplicable rush of anger.

Perhaps it was only okay when he gave Rapunzel a hard time. Besides, it didn't help that she looked genuinely scared instead of just annoyed.

Mary picked up the painting Rapunzel had been working on and flung it to the ground, issuing a devastated cry from the blonde. Deciding that was the last straw, Jack marched out of the woods and trudged across the meadow in a cloud of rage.

"Hey!" he yelled out. "Leave her alone, you wretch!"

Mary turned around, eyes widening in alarm. It didn't take long for surprise to turn to contempt.

"Oh, look Rapunzel, it's your other stupid scalawag of a boyfriend!" she sneered.

Rapunzel glared at her. "That's a load of hogwash! He's not my boyfriend, and neither is Joe!"

"Huh?" Jack gave both girls an utterly baffled look.

Mary snickered. "She kissed Joe Green!"

Joe Green was, for all intents and purposes, the "dumb muscle" of their class. Already 5 feet and 9 inches tall in the sixth grade, he could make any kid do his bidding by threatening to beat them up. He may not have been smart, but his strength was all he needed to push around anyone he wanted. Why Rapunzel, who prided herself on receiving straight A's and getting along with everyone, would want anything to do with that senseless bully was beyond Jack.

"I didn't!" Rapunzel's eyes met Jack's, like she was begging him to believe her. "Mindy Creyton told everyone that, but it's not true!"

"I believe you," he told her. Although she looked a bit reassured, she didn't smile.

Mary made kissing noises. "Oh, how sweet! Ickle Jackiekins is trying to defend his whore of a girlfriend!"

"She is not my girlfriend!" Jack snapped. "But Rapunzel would never kiss Joe. She's already got the whole damn world wrapped around her finger…why would she need to romance some stupid dunderwhelp?"

Mary rolled her eyes. "She's using her beauty to get an advantage with him, obviously! She thinks if she kisses him, she'll be exempt from getting shoved all over the place. Or worse, she can shove people around with him."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me, have you met Rapunzel? Little miss perfect here could no more have ulterior motives than fly to the moon."

The brunette snorted. "I'm sure that's what she wants you to think! But don't be fooled, the little wench probably wouldn't hesitate to kiss any boy who—"

"Just get out of here, Mary!" he cut in sharply.

"But—"

"LEAVE!"

She looked alarmed by his loud tone, and took a step back. Her face bent into a scowl.

"Fine," she growled. "I'll leave you with your little scarlet letter here."

She stormed off across the grass, and Jack turned back to look at Rapunzel. She was still sitting with her back against the tree, head in her hands.

"So…" He bit his lip. "Why did Mindy Creyton spread those rumors about you?"

Rapunzel looked up, and he could see her green eyes had grown wet with tears. "Mindy lives and breathes drama," she explained with a sniff. "If there isn't any around, she creates her own. And what could be more scandalous than the good girl star student kissing the school bully?"

"But…no one really believes her, right? I mean, Mary did, but…everyone else? I mean come on, it's just so far-fetched!"

Rapunzel sighed. "You'd be surprised. Mindy has her ways of being convincing. I thought being out of school for summer would give me a break from it all…you know, the teasing, the mean comments. But I guess I was wrong."

She looked down again, and Jack made his way over to where her canvas was lying face-down on the grass. Crouching down, he carefully lifted it up by the edges and flipped it over.

"Hey…sorry about your painting, Rapunzel. I'm sure it looked better before it got all smudgey." Unfortunately, the bright and dark greens of the summer forest were now mixed with the bluish of the mountains and the light blue-and-white of the sky. What looked like they had previously been intricately-painted little wildflowers were now just yellow blobs.

"What do you care, anyway?" Jack flinched at the sudden anger in her voice. He turned around to see her glaring at him. "You've been making my life hell ever since we were little!"

"Right…about that…" He stood up and ran a hand through his hair uncertainly. As he glanced from the glowering girl to the ruined painting, and unfamiliar feeling stirred in his chest. It almost felt like…guilt?

"I'm…kinda sorry. I shouldn't have given you such a hard time when we were kids."

She raised her eyebrows. "Just kind of?"

Jack crossed his arms. "Hey! I'm trying to make an effort here!"

Rapunzel smirked. "Well, it's a bit overdue, isn't it?"

"Okay, maybe," Jack huffed. "But hey, I haven't bothered you lately, have I? I mean, when's the last time I threw stuff at you?"

"Well…" Rapunzel paused to think. "You did drop a bunch of leaves on my head last fall. So…almost a whole year! Wow, congratulations!"

He smirked, going to sit beside her. "Yeah, how I was able to refrain for that long is beyond me."

"Hey!" She swatted him on the arm, but then broke into a chuckle. "Not that I really blame you for not liking me. I was a bit of a show-off, wasn't I?"

"A bit?" Jack raised his eyebrows. "More like a lot. Not to mention the hugest teacher's pet ever."

"Hey!" She swatted him again. "I thought you were supposed to be apologizing!"

He groaned. "Really? Ugh, I thought we were done with that. I need to get back to being the biggest nuisance in your life."

"Well, don't hurry!" Rapunzel huffed. After a short silence, she chuckled again.

"Okay, but I was a pretty big teacher's pet." She shuddered. "Kind of makes me cringe to think about it."

"This is the part where I'd normally try to reassure you by saying 'oh, you weren't that bad!' but I would sit upon a throne of lies."

Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up! Anyhow, I was only like that because my mother told me to be. She was always badgering me to get every grown-up I met to love me so that we'd both look better, and so that the whole village would think she was the best mother. Besides…she was always going on to other grown-ups about her perfect little daughter, and I kind of felt like I had to fulfill all their expectations, you know?"

"Well, I think you did," he told her. "For years, teachers made an example out of you for everything."

Rapunzel smiled lightly. "Well, it was nice for a while, I suppose. I liked that I never had to worry about my grades, and I could get away with a lot…although I never liked being singled out."

"But then in the fourth grade, everyone started teasing you about it," Jack remembered.

Rapunzel nodded. "Right. They didn't leave me alone about being Mrs. Cliffton's favorite, all the rest of that year. Didn't help that no one liked her at all. But after that…I decided I was never going to suck up again, no matter what Mother said."

"I'd definitely say you made the right choice." Jack smirked. "But I have to say, the revelation that you didn't actively want to be a suck-up paints you in a much better light." She rolled her eyes, but he could see the corners of her mouth tugging at a smile.

"Speaking of painting…" Jack crawled over and picked up the smeared canvas, plopping it down on the ground in front of Rapunzel. "What do you say we try to fix this?"

"It's kind of a lost cause…" Her frown gradually faded. "But I guess it's worth a shot."

"Jack, are you sure about this?"

Rapunzel stood trembling at the edge of the pond, her pink swimsuit showing off her growing curves. Jack, for his part, was wearing nothing but a pair of pants he hoped wouldn't take too long to dry out in the sun later on.

"Rapunzel, come on! If you start drowning, I'll pull you out."

She fiddled with her hair anxiously. "But what if I…can't learn how to swim?"

"Come ooooon, everyone can learn to swim! If I could learn it when I was 5, I'm sure you can learn it when you're 14."

He stepped into the pond, the cool water feeling wonderful after he'd been out in the summer sun all day. Noticing Rapunzel still hesitating on the shore, he reached out a hand to her, and she gladly took it.

He could still feel her trembling as he led her into the pond, so he decided to distract her by making conversation.

"I still can't believe we're actually friends," he mused. "My younger self would be so horrified."

Rapunzel laughed. "Oh, mine would too, believe me. As a matter of fact…" She gazed off into the distance contemplatively for a couple seconds before going on. "There's really nothing to convince me that you wouldn't have just let me drown if we had done this a few years ago."

"I wouldn't have even gone swimming with you a few years ago!" Jack retorted. His face softened as he looked at her. "But you know, even if I had…I don't think I would have let you drown. Then who would I annoy?"

Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "You're awful, Jack Overland!"

They walked until the water was up just past their knees, and then suddenly Rapunzel ground to a halt beside him. "Jack?"

"What's wrong?"

"Er…the ground stops here," she said.

He grinned. "Oh, then this is the fun part!"

He whooped as he dived into the open water, going down into the murky depths a little ways before he surged back up and broke the surface. He shook a few drops of water from his shaggy brown hair and started to tread water.

"You wanna see how easy swimming is?" he said. "All you have to do is kick your back legs"—he brought a foot down hard on the surface of the water as he said it—"and move your arms like you're scooping ice cream. Like this." He made the front crawl motions with his arms.

"Just watch me." He made a couple laps around the small pond. On the third lap, he rolled onto his back and started propelling himself through the water like a jellyfish. "Or you could just float like this if you want to be able to breathe!" he called out.

After finishing another lap, he paused in front of Rapunzel and started to tread water. "So? Are you gonna try?"

"I guess so," she muttered. Ever so carefully, she eased herself down onto the bottom of the pond and started to slide off of the edge of the shelf.

All at once, she lost her balance and screeched as she toppled into the deeper water. "Jack, I can't feel the ground!" she screamed, splashing around in an alarmed frenzy.

"Just get on your stomach," he instructed her. "Then start using your arms to move yourself forward."

"I can't!" she yelped. "I can't move forward! Help!"

Jack felt a pang of anxiety. It was clear she wasn't going to get from her vertical flailings-about to the standard swimming position if she was so panicked. "Hold on, I'm coming."

"Jack, hurry!" she screeched, still struggling to stay afloat. He quickly paddled over to her and treaded water with his legs while he used his arms to steady her.

"Now just hold on to me, and move your legs back and forth. Like you're running."

"Okay," she panted, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling herself close to him to hold herself in place. He clutched her waist as tight as he could with both hands.

"Okay?" he asked.

"Okay." She gave him a breathless smile, her bobbing becoming less erratic and more methodic as she began to tread water with him.

Sudden footsteps followed by a rustling in the bushes made both of them look up. Out of the undergrowth emerged Jack's friend Henry Fallowdale, looking extremely concerned.

"Uh…hi, Henry." Jack smiled awkwardly up at his friend. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard yelling and splashing, so I came here as fast as I could to make sure no one was being pulled to a watery grave by the pond monster of the deep," he replied. His lips slowly curled up into a smirk. "But it looks like you and your girlfriend have everything under control!"

"She's not my girlfriend!" Jack snapped. "Good lord, why do I have to keep telling people that?!"

"Because it's a classic love story!" Henry exclaimed, clasping his hands together. "Boy and girl can't stand each other as children, but then fall madly in love as soon as they grow up!"

Jack scowled at him. "Are you serious? Just because Rapunzel and I happen to not hate each other anymore does not mean we're in love all the sudden!"

"Yeah, we're just friends," Rapunzel added emphatically.

Henry smirked. "Funny, my parents always told me they said that in grade school. And now they have 3 kids!"

"Oh, get out of here, Henry!" Jack growled. "I'm just teaching her to swim, for god's sake!"

He help up his hands. "All right, all right. I suppose since no one is drowning, my work here is done. You lovebirds have a nice afternoon!"

"We're not lovebirds!" Rapunzel called after him as he trekked off into the shade of the trees.

As soon as he was gone, she turned and gave Jack a concerned look. "Is there really a pond monster?"

He let out an exasperated sigh. "If there was, it would've had the decency to come up and take us out of our misery by now."

"See? I told you you would like it!"

Rapunzel scooted out next to him on the oak tree branch, looking out over the sweeping forest. It was bursting with spring blossoms, the dark green of the pine trees mixed with white, light pink, and pale green. She could even see the mountains rising smoothly in the distance, silhouetted softly against the sunset clouds. The air was thick with the fresh smell of rain and the new plants it had brought out of their winter hiding.

"Wow," she breathed. "It's so beautiful." Jack smiled to himself and reached out to grab her hand. He felt her lace her fingers with his, and there was a warm stirring in his chest.

"And see waaaaay over there?" He pointed to a small clearing in the distance, where the slanted rooves of cabins were just barely visible. "That's our little village. You can see the whole thing from here. In just a little bit, all the lights will come on."

Rapunzel leaned her head up against his shoulder, and he felt an excited shiver run down his spine.

"I still can't believe it took you two years to ask me out, Jackson," she murmured teasingly.

"Yeah, well…" Jack's cheeks grew bright pink, and he was thoroughly relieved that the dying light made it harder to see. He wasn't about to tell Rapunzel how absolutely terrified he had been to tell her how he felt.

"It's not like we've even been doing anything different," he insisted. "We always go into the woods and climb trees."

"Yeah, but now we get to hold hands," she pointed out playfully.

"Okay, fair enough. We do get to hold hands."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the sun begin to sink behind the mountains. After a while, Rapunzel prodded him playfully in the side.

"Still can't believe you took so long."

He let out an agitated sigh. "I was scared, all right? I was scared you didn't like me back."

Rapunzel snorted. "You dumb dingbat! I've always liked you. Even when I hated you, I liked you."

Jack chuckled. "Yeah…same here."

He turned to look at her, the green of her eyes matching the green of the early spring leaves as she gazed out into the forest in wonder. The last rays of sun were catching her hair in just the right way, giving it a luminescent golden glow. In that moment, Jack wasn't sure he'd ever seen anyone look more beautiful.

She turned and gave him a curious smile. "What are you looking at?"

"You," he replied. "Just you."

And before he could have second thoughts, he wrapped his arms around her neck and pressed his mouth to hers. He could feel her freeze under his touch, clearly surprised, but it didn't take her long to reciprocate. As he pushed her against the tree trunk, she put her arms around his waist and pulled him as close to her as she could until he was practically sitting on her lap. He folded his legs over the top of hers, paying no mind to how both pairs of legs were swinging lazily over the side of the branch in a tangled mess as the two 17-year-olds' lips worked against one another's. Jack wasn't sure how long they sat up in that tree, kissing and holding each other and breathing in the fresh night air whenever they stopped to catch their breath. All he knew was that he never wanted it to end.

"Jack!"

Jack suddenly pulled away from Rapunzel, embarrassment burning all through his skin. His sister sure had impeccable timing, didn't she? He had been so focused on kissing Rapunzel that he hadn't heard her approaching. He was never going to hear the end of this, he was sure.

He looked down to where Emma was standing at the base of the oak tree with her arms crossed. "Oh sorry, was I interrupting a moment with your girlfriend?"

"Sh—she's not my girlfriend!" Jack stammered.

She raised her eyebrows. "Um…I literally just saw you two kissing."

"Y—yeah, but…" Jack ran a hand anxiously through his hair. "It's just the first date…it's not like we've decided on things yet…"

"Well, Mother says you've 'decided on things' since you both were 5."

"What?" Jack let out a disbelieving snort. "Don't listen to her!"

"Well, you'd better listen to her because she wants you to come home right now, and if you don't you'll be churning the butter for a month!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" Jack clambered down the tree, Rapunzel not far behind.

"Hey, sorry I have to go," he said. "I wouldn't want to sit through one of my mother's lectures about not being out so late."

The blonde nodded. "That's understandable."

"Why don't you walk back with us?" he offered, holding out his hand. She smiled and took it, and they started on their way back to the village side-by-side with Emma. The little girl constantly shot her brother knowing smirks, and he responded with his most searing dirty looks.

The whole town square was strung with flower chains, reaching from cottage to cottage and stretching to the ground from the pole in the center of the clearing. The wooden chairs that had previously crowded the square had been taken away to make room for people to dance, but the wooden arch woven through with white lilies under which the wedding vows had been said still remained.

Emma was busy strewing the last of her basket of flower petals around the clearing, still having quite a few left over from the ceremony. Admittedly 16 was a bit old to be a flower girl, but Jack had promised his sister she could be the flower girl at his wedding since she was 4.

Henry, for his part, was busy flirting with some young lady who had just moved into town, brushing off his polished best man's suit. Jack imagined he was having a great time bragging about how he had always said that the Overland boy and the Corona girl were going to get hitched, and lo and behold, look what happened! Jack rolled his eyes, but decided this was a victory he was willing to let his friend have.

Mindy Creyton and Mary Weste had both put their hair up in elegant braids wrapping around their heads for the ceremony. They were constantly smoothing out their gowns, which were an ugly washed-out blue and pink respectively, and fixing their cheap jewelry. Jack still wished Rapunzel hadn't had to invite them—the downside to living in such a small village is you were pretty much expected to invite the entire village to any important event—but he decided that not having dates and having to take turns dancing with Joe Green was punishment enough.

But if anyone was the crowning jewel of the ceremony, it was the bride. Spinning around in her glittering white dress with her hair flowing out behind her like a cascading golden waterfall, she looked like some sort of goddess. Jack watched her across the clearing with a contented smile.

"So." Jack started at his mother's voice behind him. He turned to see the brunette woman walk up to stand beside him, giving him a knowing smile. "Is she still not your girlfriend?" she teased.

"No, she's not," he replied with a smirk. "She's my wife."

WHEW. Holy shit, this was LONG! Like damn, the story wasn't supposed to be that complex but I had this idea of "what if we had a 'through the years' montage type thing where Jack always says 'she's not my girlfriend!' but then at the end there's a plot twist and SHE'S HIS WIFE INSTEAD?" And, of course, I had to follow through with it no matter how long it took, and the more I wrote on the story, the more complicated it got, so much so that I gave both Jack and Rapunzel CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT in what was supposed to be a ONE-SHOT XD The whole childhood rivalry they had going on was a very interesting idea to work with, mainly because in my person headcanon it's difficult for me to see then as anything BUT best friends as kids XD So this was a definitely a change of pace. But, come to think of it, I can defs see Rapunzel being annoyed by Jack's excessive pranking as a kid and mellowing out a bit as she got older. Apologies if young!Rapunzel seems a little OOC here. I feel like I made her a bit more aggressive and tsundere than she is in canon ^^; In my defense, people's temperaments can change a LOT as they grow up. Like I was a super belligerent, nasty kid who would always pick fights just for the hell of it, and now I'm the most easygoing, chill person ever. So that's my excuse for tsundere Rapunzel XD Also I had a blast looking up old-fashioned insults to use in this. Dunderwhelp indeed!

(Also I find it funny that I hate teacher's pets so much in real life that I couldn't just let Rapunzel naturally be that way; I had to have someone else pressure her to suck up XD)

TOMORROW: Rapunzel tries desperately to save the boy she loves from a horrible curse, determined to fulfill a promise she made to him.