Favored [tangled, rise of the guardians xover]
Title: Favored [AO3]
Rating: G+
Characters/Pairings: Jack Frost/Rapunzel, Rapunzel/Eugene, implied Jack/Tooth
Warnings: None
Summary: A twist on the ending of the movie Tangled. Jack Frost helped Rapunzel in more ways than she can remember.
Notes: This is completely my friend's fault.
The crumpled body below the tower's open window was a big enough indicator of what had just occurred. Jack quickly swept up a glass orb nestled in the grass. It would have been incredibly unwise for him to lose his ticket home from this strange world. He slipped the orb into his pocket, suppressing any potential, minuscule feelings of guilt for stealing one of North's magicked snow globes. There were much greater problems that he faced at the moment.
For one, Jack was both greatly disappointed and greatly frustrated that his powers had been diminished. He already knew that this was not a one-time issue. Secretly, he had visited this world upon multiple occasions behind the other Guardians' backs (although North had recently caught on that his magicked snow globes were going missing one at a time). This world appeared to be in a perpetual Spring, and it seemed to hamper how powerful the gusts of wind he conjured could be. Much to Jack's dismay, it even affected how much snow he could freeze from the air.
"I don't have time for this," he growled urgently as he perched his shepherd's crook over his shoulder. He ran a palm over the tower's side before he began to steadily climb it. He gripped the looming tower's occasionally uneven bricks, and when he lost his footing, it was accented by an accompanying phrase of profanity. After all, it was a pain to scale the wall, but it beat having to climb the tower's rickety spiral staircase. The only thing that forced him to keep climbing was a desperate need to ensure the princess locked away in it was safe. Rapunzel was her name, but Jack had decided to keep quiet about that. After all, she did not even know his own.
He'd seen it all, seen Gothel tracking Rapunzel (Jack told himself that he was not following Rapunzel; he was making sure Gothel wasn't up to anything sinister), watched Rapunzel locked away, even observed how Eugene had rushed to save her. Jack had seen the mutual affection that the couple held in their eyes, and he felt a twinge in his chest that was akin to an identical emotion, or more than likely, envy. Whatever it had been, it was that raw emotion that drove him to climb faster, thinking maybe he could stop what was about to happen. Jack would have jumped on any opportunity to make this particular girl happy, even if it was going to be at his own expense.
He'd wondered if this was the right thing to do. Jack could walk away and pretend to not have seen anything. It would have cost him much less to turn a blind eye than to act upon it. He could blame his current actions on his own impulsiveness though. After all, it was this particular trait that often landed him in trouble, or at least, got him a hefty scolding from North. It didn't feel the same though, but Jack didn't have time to ponder what this feeling was.
He had to act now.
The Guardian hauled himself through the tower's open window and landed unceremoniously in a heap upon the wooden floor. He didn't have time to worry about being accidentally seen. He had already learned that to the residents of this particular world, he was quite visible. It was definitely abnormal, but after centuries of being ignored, Jack was ecstatic to feel a little more human again. Perhaps that was why he kept coming back to this storybook world.
There were two shadows with a single shard of light cast upon them from the open windows, like a spotlight, across the darkened room. Jack felt his stomach drop as he identified the two shadows. Once he had gotten closer, he realized they were Rapunzel herself hunched over a lifeless body.
"He's gone," Rapunzel mumbled dejectedly. Her fingers were still closed tightly around Eugene's bloody hand, and each tear that ran down her face sent another stake through Jack's chest. "No, he can't be gone, he can't be…"
Jack's grip on his shepherd's crook tightened until he could feel its grooved surface bite into his palm. The truth was setting in; Jack had failed her. He was gifted with a single opportunity, all in vain.
Suddenly, he was assaulted by the fear that he might be intruding upon Rapunzel's grief. But when he took a step back, Rapunzel lowered Eugene's lifeless hand to his side. She wiped at her damp eyes with a wrist before rising from the ground. "I… I've seen you before," she said quietly, and Jack's heart leaped into his throat. The thought that she might have seen him while he had followed her for a bit would have made him panic, if not for Rapunzel's sorrowful expression. "You're not from here, are you? You can take away, can't you?" Jack was alarmed by the desperate expression in her puffy eyes when she turned around. "I don't want to be here anymore. I can't be here anymore, not without Eugene."
It didn't matter to Jack if, even posthumously, Eugene was still Rapunzel's entire world. He couldn't stand seeing her face without a smile on it. He stretched out a hand to her and spoke softly.
"Come with me then."
Of course, North was livid when Jack brought the new girl home. He appeared to be angrier than Bunny when a little trick experiment of Jack's with winter winds all but canceled Easter. Jack thought that had been incredibly immature of the oversized rabbit. Granted, the egg hunt was a greatly anticipated event of the Easter celebrations, but Jack had also argued that simply enjoying each other's company should have been enough for festivities. Bunny would hear nothing of it, just as North interjected each of Jack's attempted explanations at the current situation.
Even as the older Guardian scolded Jack for using his snow globes for his own pleasure, Jack Frost merely waved a dismissive hand at him. "Don't worry, North. I got this, I got this," he reassured him. Jack was well aware that North put a great amount of faith in him. It was clear now that the Christmas Guardian didn't have as much trust in him as he had hoped for. "Besides, Christmas is around the corner and this is the last thing you should be worrying about! Come to mention it, I think the yetis in the kitchen have gotten low on flour for your cookies. Maybe you should let the elves give it a spin --"
"Jack Frost, you are going to take this girl back to where she came from!" North bellowed, his reddening cheeks matching the color of his nose. Jack wondered, should he choose to lower the temperature in the Guardian's office, if steam would jettison from the Guardian's ears.
"All right, all right! Yeesh, don't bust your hump about this. I got it covered. Just one thing I have to do for her, and look, she's pretty broken up about something that happened. She needed a place to stay." North still appeared to be utterly unconvinced. "Hey, we're Guardians, right? Yeah I get that she's not exactly a child, but she can see me. You know what that means? Her heart is of a child, and it's our job to protect her. … besides, I think Tooth would appreciate her company."
North stamped a foot on the floor, and Jack had to catch his balance from the tremors when the staff he was leaning upon tilted from the impacts. "Jack, you know all the consequences of going to and fro irresponsibly between realms, yes?" Jack nodded wordlessly, smug grin on his face. "Then why do you insist on doing it?"
"North, you don't get it! You wanted me to just leave her there? What happened to guarding the children?"
"Young man you are going to march her right back --"
But Jack Frost was already gone, nowhere to be found.
Neither Jack nor Rapunzel questioned the flow of time between their respective worlds. After all, Jack quickly realized long before that barely seconds passed in Corona during the entire course of a winter blizzard. He had been able to slip away right under the other Guardians' notices, and by the time he returned, none of them realized that the winter spirit had disappeared in the first place. If they did, Jack grinned to himself and responded with a valid enough excuse: he felt Jamie Bennett was deserving of a snow day.
The first day away from Corona had already begun to take its toll on Rapunzel. Jack never mentioned that he saw dark bags under the girl's eyes, but that didn't necessarily mean they weren't there. It was only natural that she looked weary, or so he figured. He imagined that he too would look the same, though the impressions the bags would make under his eyes would be much deeper on his pale face. Grief was foreign to him. It was something that he hadn't been allowed to feel, granted, it had been a very, very long time since Jack Frost had sensed real emotion. Loneliness didn't count anymore, for such an emotion had become something akin to a personality trait. Jack had once been human, possessed human emotion, but only after becoming a Guardian did he begin to feel joy and sorrow once more. The smile on Jamie's face made him glow inside, and watching the boy become dejected from time to time caused his heart to grow heavy.
Emotions were human, and this was something that Rapunzel was.
This was also something that Jack was not.
There were many things that Rapunzel needed, and as she sat huddled in the corner of an abandoned cottage, Jack was quickly reminded that warmth was one of them. He disappeared out the door, only to return with a scrappy blanket clutched in his hands. Rapunzel's eyes were squeezed shut, as if closing her eyes would keep the winter cold at bay. He tossed the grubby comforter over her body with an apologetic expression. "Sorry that it smells a bit. Probably not as good as what you're used to but, hey, it's… something?"
Truth be told, Jack was quite surprised that Rapunzel could still see him. The brunette had caught Jack's brilliant eyes trained upon her on many occasions, and she often caught snatches of him whispering over and over again, "She sees me! I can't believe she can see me!" The look that Jack wore now was quite similar to it. Rapunzel tugged on the blanket and gave the Guardian an expression of gratitude, confusion, and a touch of bashfulness.
"… of course I can still see you," she replied. "I saw you in my tower too. Why wouldn't I see you here?"
Jack chuckled. "Am I that obvious? You can tell what's on my mind, just like that?"
Rapunzel gave him an innocent shrug. "I guess I can." She sighed quietly and covered half her face with the dirty blanket. "It smells."
"Sorry."
"No, thank you."
"You're welcome. I'll be back soon. … I think I'm making it too cold in here for you."
Jack rose from his seat at Rapunzel's side. A hand whipped out from under the blanket and snagged its fingers on the hem of his sweatshirt. "… no, stay," Rapunzel whispered. "… please." It was strange to be needed, but Jack pushed the thought aside as arbitrary. He crawled under the blanket and brushed a strand of Rapunzel's brunette hair from her face.
The last thing Rapunzel remembered from that evening was resting her head on a particularly cold shoulder.
Jack was right about at least one thing. Granted, Tooth was typically busy all around the clock, but he happened to catch her during a one-week vacation. Even Guardians needed the occasional break from their duties to keep a hold of their own sanity. It had only been a couple days ago that he knocked on the door of Tooth's castle with a brunette girl at his back.
"Jack, I don't have time for this right now. … Well I do have time because I'm not doing anything important, but I need my time off too and -- oh! Hello there, who have we here?"
Tooth ushered the pair in, and Jack stepped slightly to the side. He stretched a hand out at Rapunzel. "Tooth, this is Rapunzel. Could you, er, look after her for a few days? She won't cause any trouble, I swear."
The hummingbird fairy hovered in front of Rapunzel with a warm expression on her face. She clapped her hands together before announcing, "I think that we'll get along just fine. As long as you've already told North, I'd be thrilled to have her here! … you have told North, haven't you? … Jack, please! Or at least have her explain herself to him!"
"I will, I will!"
It was a task easier said than done. Rapunzel hadn't said a much since arriving in their world. Perhaps it was simply the shock of leaping into a new universe that had stolen away her voice. She wasn't entirely mute and answered occasional questions, but she never cared to elaborate much on them. Jack didn't bother her about that. He would leave it to Tooth to see if she could reanimate Rapunzel's shell of a being. The fairy had a knack for being with people, but it wasn't something that he was surprised about. After all, children adored the Tooth Fairy. Jack Frost? The same could be said about him as well, though there were plenty of children who resented the cold.
"If you need something, just give Tooth a call," Jack said, nodding in the fairy's direction. "And if you need, she'll get a hold of me."
Rapunzel's green eyes widened, and she wrapped her slender fingers around Jack's cold wrist. "You'll come back though, right?" she whispered in a quivering voice. Jack had thought it was particularly strange, the way that she had not protested to having Jack watch over her. It was as if she had latched herself to the first person she saw after Eugene's death, and while it puzzled Jack, he was ashamed that he relished in the feeling of being needed. It felt so inherently wrong to feel as if he had swept in to whisk Rapunzel away, all after the only thing separating the two from each other had been eliminated.
But then he reminded himself of his motives, and it eased his mind.
Jack gingerly touched the girl's wrist. "Yeah, I'll be back. There's something I gotta do first though," he replied earnestly, and with a wink, he added, "you know, I'm not exactly an ordinary fellow."
"Hey, Rapunzel?"
"Mm?"
"Can I say something?"
"Yes, you can ask."
"I swear, you look at everything like you're seeing it all for the first time."
Rapunzel lowered the red Christmas rose she was sniffing and lifted her face to Jack. Briefly, Jack feared that he had offended her, and an apology was already forming on the tip of his tongue. But Rapunzel was smiling at him instead, and responded with, "Well, it's because… this is my first time seeing a lot of things. It's my first time seeing, what's all this white called?"
Jack cocked his head to the side. "What, snow?"
"Yes, snow! I've never seen it before. It's… beautiful in its own way. Corona is always warm, so everything is new."
Jack felt his chest swell with pride, that Rapunzel appreciated his very own handiwork. He leaned forward on his shepherd's crook before asking, "Yeah? You like it?"
"I do."
Jack had heard adults gripe one too many times about his work. For crying out loud, that was his /job/, and to their dismay, all a subset of the natural water cycle. He didn't mind so much when they cursed him. After all, these were the people who had either forgotten about him or simply never acknowledged his presence. The children on the other hand, oh, how they shouted in glee as they tugged their gloves on to throw snowballs at each other's faces. Occasionally, Jack joined in with their antics, and even if they still could not see them, he was still permitted to play and enjoy human company vicariously. After becoming a Guardian, he found that he was quite content as long as the children were smiling (and of course, when he was feeling particularly down, he paid Jamie and his neighbors a visit).
Lately though, he hadn't been feeling the need to do so.
"Glad you like it," Jack said as he wandered a little off beyond the bare trees of the forest. He stooped down and plucked a single flower from the snow. He quickly returned to Rapunzel's side, and with a flourish and a bow said, "For you." He presented the white flower with a single hand. "These are my real specialties. They only grow in the winter."
Rapunzel slid the stem of the Christmas rose under her dress belt and took the snowdrop flower from Jack's hand. He grinned at the innocent wonder in the girl's eyes as she gazed at the single flower. Perhaps that was why she could see him, and not simply because it was a side effect of being Corona kingdom native. "It's… Jack, you can do this?"
It was something that many people were surprised to learn. Indeed, Jack was aware that most people lumped his name in with harbingers of death, but the Guardian could also produce life with a snap of his fingers. Of course, he did not have nearly as wide of a selection as Bunny, but Jack sculpted every flower that he grew with his very own hands. Each was dear to him, and he knew every one by its own name, unlike the Easter Bunny who spawned the flowers wherever he hopped.
"I haven't named this one yet," Jack explained. "I've got a name in mind though. Wanna hear?"
Rapunzel tilted her head to the side. "Yes, Jack. I'm dying of suspense!"
Jack reached forward and closed Rapunzel's fingers around the stem of her snowdrop. "Its name is Rapunzel."
"... Oh c'mon Sandy! Look, with a bit of Tooth's help and some from your sand, this should be a cinch!"
Sandy crossed his arms over his chest with a stubborn expression on his face. He shook his head vehemently in a very clear "no". A large X of sand floated above his head, accenting his reply. At times, Jack was convinced that there was no need for Sandy to have a voice. He managed to voice his opinions quite well, even without one. A picture told a thousand words, and Sandy's entire body language expressed just how much he disliked Jack's plan. His mouth was turned upside-down in a deepset frown, and his arms still had not moved from their folded position. He tapped a foot impatiently, as if to wait for Jack to retract his proposals, and small puffs of sand jetted from his nostrils. Sandy finally uncrossed his arms, and when he did, shook an accusatory index finger in Jack's direction.
"I know we're not supposed to go world-hopping, Sandy. I really do, but she's from a storybook, right? I think there was a movie not too long ago. That's where she came from. It's not going to blow anything up," Jack quipped, quickly interrupting the chorus of tinkling bells that Sandy sounded when he "spoke". "C'mon, Sandy, please? Tooth is on board for it. I've already asked! We just need a bit of help from you and your sands to get a more accurate reading on this guy."
Sandy crossed his arms over his chest again, but this time, along with tapping his foot impatiently, he puffed out his cheeks. The Guardian let out a hefty sigh before holding up another index finger to Jack, as if to express that he was, absolutely, only doing this favor for Jack once without any exceptions. But now, another question had to be addressed. The interrogation mark appeared above the Guardian's head accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders. "Our magic will be enough to do the job," Jack reassured him. "Meet me at Tooth's castle tomorrow morning. She has everything we need. We'll just need a bit of your sands to finish it off. It'll be easy. Trust me."
Sandy knew that expression. He sighed, knowing there was no use in arguing. But Jack had a point about their duties as Guardians. Protect the children, yes, but their innocence too, even if the "children" in question were of a different universe (Sandy and Tooth still hadn't figured out how Rapunzel had come to Earth to begin with, though he sensed that North had finally put two and two together; he probably realized by now why all his magicked snow globes had been disappearing). Sandy gave Jack the final nod that he was waiting for, to which Jack clapped the other Guardian on the shoulder in an expression of gratitude. The dream Guardian blinked as flecks of sand flew off his body and circled back to reattach themselves to his clothes. He shook a playful fist at Jack for it, but when he did, he saw that the winter Guardian had already disappeared. Jack, for once in a blue moon, meant serious business after all.
Then again, Sandy knew from the beginning that Jack truly meant to do the single thing that would bring the most happiness to Rapunzel. Jack had already showed Sandy that he'd picked his own poison. It was a sugary concoction for Rapunzel, but Sandy was convinced that this was a particularly noxious one for Jack. He'd seen the determination on the winter Guardian's face though, and with the sheer amount of purpose that had been in Jack's face, it was impossible for the Sandman to decline. Rather, Sandy believed that he hadn't much choice. He knew what Rapunzel dreamed about. The sad ones were about Eugene, but so were the happy ones. Sparsely thrown about here and there were memories that the girl had forged with Jack. Yet, these bursts of happy times with Jack were far outweighed by Rapunzel's dreams of Corona. Sandy felt that he had practically visited the foreign realm, for in Rapunzel's dreams, he had caught a glimpse of a village festival. Rapunzel had twirled about, long, braided hair flowing at her back as a dark-haired man looked on with a loving expression. He had seen the tower that Rapunzel had been locked away in, and he had watched her knock the same man in the head with the edge of a frying pan. Sandy had seen the way that Rapunzel struggled to shove the man into an empty wardrobe to hide him from her stepmother.
Sandy sighed and folded his hands together. Jack knew what he was getting himself into.
If bringing happiness to Rapunzel would also, consequently, make Jack happy too, so be it.
"I don't need to go back." Rapunzel crossed her arms over her chest with a stubborn expression on her face. "Jack, I can stay right here."
Jack cleared his throat and wove a dismissive hand at the girl. "No no," he responded, "you don't want to go back. Different."
Now, it was Rapunzel's turn to clench her hands into tight fists. "… you're right," she replied quietly. Only a week was supposed to have gone by, but so much more time had accidentally gone by. She'd begun to become more talkative. It was something that Jack had been particularly worried about, but eventually, the girl began to show more and more of her original personality. "You're right. I don't want to go back."
The Guardian rocked back and forth on his heels before leaping into the air, landing upon one of the precipices of Tooth's castle. "Why not? We're all attached to a world. That's why North was so angry when I brought you here. You're not supposed to be here, Rapunzel."
"You brought me here in the first place!"
Jack took a step off the edge of the precipice and landed softly before the brunette. He let out a sigh and pressed a frigid finger under her eye as he caught a stray tear from her. The gesture only drew more tears from her though. "Hey, trust me," he said to her. "Have I ever let you down before?" Without waiting for a reply (for the question was a rhetorical one), he produced another one of North's snow globes from his sweatshirt pocket. The snow whirled within the confines of the glass, filling Rapunzel's eyes with wonder. It wasn't the first time that the girl had seen one, but this was the first time that she had seen one right before her eyes. Only when Jack extended a hand to her did she tear her gaze away from the orb. She bit her lower lip, well aware that if she took Jack's hand, she ran the risk of losing someone else. Not that she had intended on becoming attached to Jack in the first place. She hadn't forgotten about Eugene, and Rapunzel wondered if Tooth heard her sobbing in her sleep during the nights spent at the castle. She still saw Eugene in her dreams and missed him dearly, but when she had lost him, it was Jack who took her hand to a magical world. Jack was the one who kept her company when she felt utterly alone.
Her fingers closed around Jack's.
"I trust you."
A smile broke out over Jack's face as he threw the snow globe forward and declared their next destination, "Kingdom of Corona!" The glass, instead of falling to the ground and shattering, remained suspended into the air. It expanded into a wormhole, the portal displaying the familiar interior of Rapunzel's tower. Jack felt Rapunzel's hand tighten around his own, but took a step forward anyways. "Don't worry, it's safe," he reassured her with a crooked grin. The familiar facial expression sent a pang through her stomach, but she nodded anyways and followed behind Jack.
Rapunzel blinked, bewildered that Tooth and Sandy were waiting inside the tower for them. "Right on time!" Tooth chirped, to which Sandy agreed with by enthusiastically nodding.
The Corona native was quick to release Jack's hand, as if her palms had brushed against something that burned hot. Her face grew dark and her eyes narrowed at the winter spirit. "Why did you bring me here?" she asked quietly, voice dripping with venom. "I didn't want to come back here. You tricked me!"
The anger in Rapunzel's eyes sent a stake through Jack's stomach. He knew that she wouldn't realize what was about to happen. It was only natural that she was still in the dark about what Jack desired to give to her. It was only right. He had heard Rapunzel whisper Eugene's name in her sleep, and more importantly, it would have been wrong for a Guardian to develop strong feelings for a human. A human's lifespan was a flickering candlelight in the scope of a Guardian's time on Earth. As long as the children continued to believe in Jack, he would be right as rain. But the cold that Rapunzel had caught and the blanket she wrapped herself with each night to keep warm reminded Jack that Rapunzel, too, was no Guardian. There was nothing eternal about being human.
So this was best for both of them.
Jack shook his head, quickly replying with, "You said you trusted me, right? Just… just trust me for a little longer, okay?"
"Jack, I don't understand what you're --"
Suddenly, Tooth's fingers were in Rapunzel's mouth, prying it open so she could get a good look at the girl's teeth. "Oh yes, I thought those choppers looked familiar!" she hummed and produced a capsule in a palm. The fairy gave it a shake, causing the baby teeth inside it to rattle about. "Sandy, ready for this?" The Sandman responded with a pantomimed thumbs-up gesture before he took the capsule from Tooth. He sprinkled a few grains of enchanted sand upon it before tossing a handful onto the lifeless Eugene. Rapunzel could only watch with a special kind of awe as the golden specks floated through the air and settled upon his body.
She gave a quick glance at Jack. Granted, Rapunzel trusted him, but did not understand what the three Guardians were attempting to achieve. She did not question their actions though, and instead, looked on with hands clasped in front of her.
Then Eugene stirred.
Rapunzel gasped as she fell to her knees to check his pulse with one hand, and with the other, grabbed his hands. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized that his fingers were closing around her own. "Eugene?" she whispered as the man responded with a weak grin.
Jack started when he felt a delicate hand on his shoulder. He saw that it belonged to Tooth. "Are you sure about this?" she asked him with a worried expression.
The other Guardian responded with a nod. "Yeah, I'm sure."
Tooth snapped her fingers, and Jack felt a veil envelope himself, Tooth, and Sandy. Rapunzel glanced over her shoulder, hands still tightly clutching Eugene's. There was a puzzled expression on her face though as she spoke softly, "Jack? Jack, where are you?" With her free hand, Rapunzel's hand slipped under her dress' belt. Hidden underneath was a dried snowdrop flower that had never left her side since she had received it. With an anxious expression, the girl tugged on it and clutched its brittle stem tightly in a hand.
"Oh, who's that?" Eugene said in a rather drowsy tone. The flower fluttered to the ground as Rapunzel used her other hand to stroke Eugene's forehead.
Sandy flicked his wrist at the reunited couple, grains of golden sands falling over their eyelids. Under the invisible veil, Tooth squeezed Jack's hand as Rapunzel whispered in Eugene's ear:
"No, nothing."
Rating: G+
Characters/Pairings: Jack Frost/Rapunzel, Rapunzel/Eugene, implied Jack/Tooth
Warnings: None
Summary: A twist on the ending of the movie Tangled. Jack Frost helped Rapunzel in more ways than she can remember.
Notes: This is completely my friend's fault.
The crumpled body below the tower's open window was a big enough indicator of what had just occurred. Jack quickly swept up a glass orb nestled in the grass. It would have been incredibly unwise for him to lose his ticket home from this strange world. He slipped the orb into his pocket, suppressing any potential, minuscule feelings of guilt for stealing one of North's magicked snow globes. There were much greater problems that he faced at the moment.
For one, Jack was both greatly disappointed and greatly frustrated that his powers had been diminished. He already knew that this was not a one-time issue. Secretly, he had visited this world upon multiple occasions behind the other Guardians' backs (although North had recently caught on that his magicked snow globes were going missing one at a time). This world appeared to be in a perpetual Spring, and it seemed to hamper how powerful the gusts of wind he conjured could be. Much to Jack's dismay, it even affected how much snow he could freeze from the air.
"I don't have time for this," he growled urgently as he perched his shepherd's crook over his shoulder. He ran a palm over the tower's side before he began to steadily climb it. He gripped the looming tower's occasionally uneven bricks, and when he lost his footing, it was accented by an accompanying phrase of profanity. After all, it was a pain to scale the wall, but it beat having to climb the tower's rickety spiral staircase. The only thing that forced him to keep climbing was a desperate need to ensure the princess locked away in it was safe. Rapunzel was her name, but Jack had decided to keep quiet about that. After all, she did not even know his own.
He'd seen it all, seen Gothel tracking Rapunzel (Jack told himself that he was not following Rapunzel; he was making sure Gothel wasn't up to anything sinister), watched Rapunzel locked away, even observed how Eugene had rushed to save her. Jack had seen the mutual affection that the couple held in their eyes, and he felt a twinge in his chest that was akin to an identical emotion, or more than likely, envy. Whatever it had been, it was that raw emotion that drove him to climb faster, thinking maybe he could stop what was about to happen. Jack would have jumped on any opportunity to make this particular girl happy, even if it was going to be at his own expense.
He'd wondered if this was the right thing to do. Jack could walk away and pretend to not have seen anything. It would have cost him much less to turn a blind eye than to act upon it. He could blame his current actions on his own impulsiveness though. After all, it was this particular trait that often landed him in trouble, or at least, got him a hefty scolding from North. It didn't feel the same though, but Jack didn't have time to ponder what this feeling was.
He had to act now.
The Guardian hauled himself through the tower's open window and landed unceremoniously in a heap upon the wooden floor. He didn't have time to worry about being accidentally seen. He had already learned that to the residents of this particular world, he was quite visible. It was definitely abnormal, but after centuries of being ignored, Jack was ecstatic to feel a little more human again. Perhaps that was why he kept coming back to this storybook world.
There were two shadows with a single shard of light cast upon them from the open windows, like a spotlight, across the darkened room. Jack felt his stomach drop as he identified the two shadows. Once he had gotten closer, he realized they were Rapunzel herself hunched over a lifeless body.
"He's gone," Rapunzel mumbled dejectedly. Her fingers were still closed tightly around Eugene's bloody hand, and each tear that ran down her face sent another stake through Jack's chest. "No, he can't be gone, he can't be…"
Jack's grip on his shepherd's crook tightened until he could feel its grooved surface bite into his palm. The truth was setting in; Jack had failed her. He was gifted with a single opportunity, all in vain.
Suddenly, he was assaulted by the fear that he might be intruding upon Rapunzel's grief. But when he took a step back, Rapunzel lowered Eugene's lifeless hand to his side. She wiped at her damp eyes with a wrist before rising from the ground. "I… I've seen you before," she said quietly, and Jack's heart leaped into his throat. The thought that she might have seen him while he had followed her for a bit would have made him panic, if not for Rapunzel's sorrowful expression. "You're not from here, are you? You can take away, can't you?" Jack was alarmed by the desperate expression in her puffy eyes when she turned around. "I don't want to be here anymore. I can't be here anymore, not without Eugene."
It didn't matter to Jack if, even posthumously, Eugene was still Rapunzel's entire world. He couldn't stand seeing her face without a smile on it. He stretched out a hand to her and spoke softly.
"Come with me then."
Of course, North was livid when Jack brought the new girl home. He appeared to be angrier than Bunny when a little trick experiment of Jack's with winter winds all but canceled Easter. Jack thought that had been incredibly immature of the oversized rabbit. Granted, the egg hunt was a greatly anticipated event of the Easter celebrations, but Jack had also argued that simply enjoying each other's company should have been enough for festivities. Bunny would hear nothing of it, just as North interjected each of Jack's attempted explanations at the current situation.
Even as the older Guardian scolded Jack for using his snow globes for his own pleasure, Jack Frost merely waved a dismissive hand at him. "Don't worry, North. I got this, I got this," he reassured him. Jack was well aware that North put a great amount of faith in him. It was clear now that the Christmas Guardian didn't have as much trust in him as he had hoped for. "Besides, Christmas is around the corner and this is the last thing you should be worrying about! Come to mention it, I think the yetis in the kitchen have gotten low on flour for your cookies. Maybe you should let the elves give it a spin --"
"Jack Frost, you are going to take this girl back to where she came from!" North bellowed, his reddening cheeks matching the color of his nose. Jack wondered, should he choose to lower the temperature in the Guardian's office, if steam would jettison from the Guardian's ears.
"All right, all right! Yeesh, don't bust your hump about this. I got it covered. Just one thing I have to do for her, and look, she's pretty broken up about something that happened. She needed a place to stay." North still appeared to be utterly unconvinced. "Hey, we're Guardians, right? Yeah I get that she's not exactly a child, but she can see me. You know what that means? Her heart is of a child, and it's our job to protect her. … besides, I think Tooth would appreciate her company."
North stamped a foot on the floor, and Jack had to catch his balance from the tremors when the staff he was leaning upon tilted from the impacts. "Jack, you know all the consequences of going to and fro irresponsibly between realms, yes?" Jack nodded wordlessly, smug grin on his face. "Then why do you insist on doing it?"
"North, you don't get it! You wanted me to just leave her there? What happened to guarding the children?"
"Young man you are going to march her right back --"
But Jack Frost was already gone, nowhere to be found.
Neither Jack nor Rapunzel questioned the flow of time between their respective worlds. After all, Jack quickly realized long before that barely seconds passed in Corona during the entire course of a winter blizzard. He had been able to slip away right under the other Guardians' notices, and by the time he returned, none of them realized that the winter spirit had disappeared in the first place. If they did, Jack grinned to himself and responded with a valid enough excuse: he felt Jamie Bennett was deserving of a snow day.
The first day away from Corona had already begun to take its toll on Rapunzel. Jack never mentioned that he saw dark bags under the girl's eyes, but that didn't necessarily mean they weren't there. It was only natural that she looked weary, or so he figured. He imagined that he too would look the same, though the impressions the bags would make under his eyes would be much deeper on his pale face. Grief was foreign to him. It was something that he hadn't been allowed to feel, granted, it had been a very, very long time since Jack Frost had sensed real emotion. Loneliness didn't count anymore, for such an emotion had become something akin to a personality trait. Jack had once been human, possessed human emotion, but only after becoming a Guardian did he begin to feel joy and sorrow once more. The smile on Jamie's face made him glow inside, and watching the boy become dejected from time to time caused his heart to grow heavy.
Emotions were human, and this was something that Rapunzel was.
This was also something that Jack was not.
There were many things that Rapunzel needed, and as she sat huddled in the corner of an abandoned cottage, Jack was quickly reminded that warmth was one of them. He disappeared out the door, only to return with a scrappy blanket clutched in his hands. Rapunzel's eyes were squeezed shut, as if closing her eyes would keep the winter cold at bay. He tossed the grubby comforter over her body with an apologetic expression. "Sorry that it smells a bit. Probably not as good as what you're used to but, hey, it's… something?"
Truth be told, Jack was quite surprised that Rapunzel could still see him. The brunette had caught Jack's brilliant eyes trained upon her on many occasions, and she often caught snatches of him whispering over and over again, "She sees me! I can't believe she can see me!" The look that Jack wore now was quite similar to it. Rapunzel tugged on the blanket and gave the Guardian an expression of gratitude, confusion, and a touch of bashfulness.
"… of course I can still see you," she replied. "I saw you in my tower too. Why wouldn't I see you here?"
Jack chuckled. "Am I that obvious? You can tell what's on my mind, just like that?"
Rapunzel gave him an innocent shrug. "I guess I can." She sighed quietly and covered half her face with the dirty blanket. "It smells."
"Sorry."
"No, thank you."
"You're welcome. I'll be back soon. … I think I'm making it too cold in here for you."
Jack rose from his seat at Rapunzel's side. A hand whipped out from under the blanket and snagged its fingers on the hem of his sweatshirt. "… no, stay," Rapunzel whispered. "… please." It was strange to be needed, but Jack pushed the thought aside as arbitrary. He crawled under the blanket and brushed a strand of Rapunzel's brunette hair from her face.
The last thing Rapunzel remembered from that evening was resting her head on a particularly cold shoulder.
Jack was right about at least one thing. Granted, Tooth was typically busy all around the clock, but he happened to catch her during a one-week vacation. Even Guardians needed the occasional break from their duties to keep a hold of their own sanity. It had only been a couple days ago that he knocked on the door of Tooth's castle with a brunette girl at his back.
"Jack, I don't have time for this right now. … Well I do have time because I'm not doing anything important, but I need my time off too and -- oh! Hello there, who have we here?"
Tooth ushered the pair in, and Jack stepped slightly to the side. He stretched a hand out at Rapunzel. "Tooth, this is Rapunzel. Could you, er, look after her for a few days? She won't cause any trouble, I swear."
The hummingbird fairy hovered in front of Rapunzel with a warm expression on her face. She clapped her hands together before announcing, "I think that we'll get along just fine. As long as you've already told North, I'd be thrilled to have her here! … you have told North, haven't you? … Jack, please! Or at least have her explain herself to him!"
"I will, I will!"
It was a task easier said than done. Rapunzel hadn't said a much since arriving in their world. Perhaps it was simply the shock of leaping into a new universe that had stolen away her voice. She wasn't entirely mute and answered occasional questions, but she never cared to elaborate much on them. Jack didn't bother her about that. He would leave it to Tooth to see if she could reanimate Rapunzel's shell of a being. The fairy had a knack for being with people, but it wasn't something that he was surprised about. After all, children adored the Tooth Fairy. Jack Frost? The same could be said about him as well, though there were plenty of children who resented the cold.
"If you need something, just give Tooth a call," Jack said, nodding in the fairy's direction. "And if you need, she'll get a hold of me."
Rapunzel's green eyes widened, and she wrapped her slender fingers around Jack's cold wrist. "You'll come back though, right?" she whispered in a quivering voice. Jack had thought it was particularly strange, the way that she had not protested to having Jack watch over her. It was as if she had latched herself to the first person she saw after Eugene's death, and while it puzzled Jack, he was ashamed that he relished in the feeling of being needed. It felt so inherently wrong to feel as if he had swept in to whisk Rapunzel away, all after the only thing separating the two from each other had been eliminated.
But then he reminded himself of his motives, and it eased his mind.
Jack gingerly touched the girl's wrist. "Yeah, I'll be back. There's something I gotta do first though," he replied earnestly, and with a wink, he added, "you know, I'm not exactly an ordinary fellow."
"Hey, Rapunzel?"
"Mm?"
"Can I say something?"
"Yes, you can ask."
"I swear, you look at everything like you're seeing it all for the first time."
Rapunzel lowered the red Christmas rose she was sniffing and lifted her face to Jack. Briefly, Jack feared that he had offended her, and an apology was already forming on the tip of his tongue. But Rapunzel was smiling at him instead, and responded with, "Well, it's because… this is my first time seeing a lot of things. It's my first time seeing, what's all this white called?"
Jack cocked his head to the side. "What, snow?"
"Yes, snow! I've never seen it before. It's… beautiful in its own way. Corona is always warm, so everything is new."
Jack felt his chest swell with pride, that Rapunzel appreciated his very own handiwork. He leaned forward on his shepherd's crook before asking, "Yeah? You like it?"
"I do."
Jack had heard adults gripe one too many times about his work. For crying out loud, that was his /job/, and to their dismay, all a subset of the natural water cycle. He didn't mind so much when they cursed him. After all, these were the people who had either forgotten about him or simply never acknowledged his presence. The children on the other hand, oh, how they shouted in glee as they tugged their gloves on to throw snowballs at each other's faces. Occasionally, Jack joined in with their antics, and even if they still could not see them, he was still permitted to play and enjoy human company vicariously. After becoming a Guardian, he found that he was quite content as long as the children were smiling (and of course, when he was feeling particularly down, he paid Jamie and his neighbors a visit).
Lately though, he hadn't been feeling the need to do so.
"Glad you like it," Jack said as he wandered a little off beyond the bare trees of the forest. He stooped down and plucked a single flower from the snow. He quickly returned to Rapunzel's side, and with a flourish and a bow said, "For you." He presented the white flower with a single hand. "These are my real specialties. They only grow in the winter."
Rapunzel slid the stem of the Christmas rose under her dress belt and took the snowdrop flower from Jack's hand. He grinned at the innocent wonder in the girl's eyes as she gazed at the single flower. Perhaps that was why she could see him, and not simply because it was a side effect of being Corona kingdom native. "It's… Jack, you can do this?"
It was something that many people were surprised to learn. Indeed, Jack was aware that most people lumped his name in with harbingers of death, but the Guardian could also produce life with a snap of his fingers. Of course, he did not have nearly as wide of a selection as Bunny, but Jack sculpted every flower that he grew with his very own hands. Each was dear to him, and he knew every one by its own name, unlike the Easter Bunny who spawned the flowers wherever he hopped.
"I haven't named this one yet," Jack explained. "I've got a name in mind though. Wanna hear?"
Rapunzel tilted her head to the side. "Yes, Jack. I'm dying of suspense!"
Jack reached forward and closed Rapunzel's fingers around the stem of her snowdrop. "Its name is Rapunzel."
"... Oh c'mon Sandy! Look, with a bit of Tooth's help and some from your sand, this should be a cinch!"
Sandy crossed his arms over his chest with a stubborn expression on his face. He shook his head vehemently in a very clear "no". A large X of sand floated above his head, accenting his reply. At times, Jack was convinced that there was no need for Sandy to have a voice. He managed to voice his opinions quite well, even without one. A picture told a thousand words, and Sandy's entire body language expressed just how much he disliked Jack's plan. His mouth was turned upside-down in a deepset frown, and his arms still had not moved from their folded position. He tapped a foot impatiently, as if to wait for Jack to retract his proposals, and small puffs of sand jetted from his nostrils. Sandy finally uncrossed his arms, and when he did, shook an accusatory index finger in Jack's direction.
"I know we're not supposed to go world-hopping, Sandy. I really do, but she's from a storybook, right? I think there was a movie not too long ago. That's where she came from. It's not going to blow anything up," Jack quipped, quickly interrupting the chorus of tinkling bells that Sandy sounded when he "spoke". "C'mon, Sandy, please? Tooth is on board for it. I've already asked! We just need a bit of help from you and your sands to get a more accurate reading on this guy."
Sandy crossed his arms over his chest again, but this time, along with tapping his foot impatiently, he puffed out his cheeks. The Guardian let out a hefty sigh before holding up another index finger to Jack, as if to express that he was, absolutely, only doing this favor for Jack once without any exceptions. But now, another question had to be addressed. The interrogation mark appeared above the Guardian's head accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders. "Our magic will be enough to do the job," Jack reassured him. "Meet me at Tooth's castle tomorrow morning. She has everything we need. We'll just need a bit of your sands to finish it off. It'll be easy. Trust me."
Sandy knew that expression. He sighed, knowing there was no use in arguing. But Jack had a point about their duties as Guardians. Protect the children, yes, but their innocence too, even if the "children" in question were of a different universe (Sandy and Tooth still hadn't figured out how Rapunzel had come to Earth to begin with, though he sensed that North had finally put two and two together; he probably realized by now why all his magicked snow globes had been disappearing). Sandy gave Jack the final nod that he was waiting for, to which Jack clapped the other Guardian on the shoulder in an expression of gratitude. The dream Guardian blinked as flecks of sand flew off his body and circled back to reattach themselves to his clothes. He shook a playful fist at Jack for it, but when he did, he saw that the winter Guardian had already disappeared. Jack, for once in a blue moon, meant serious business after all.
Then again, Sandy knew from the beginning that Jack truly meant to do the single thing that would bring the most happiness to Rapunzel. Jack had already showed Sandy that he'd picked his own poison. It was a sugary concoction for Rapunzel, but Sandy was convinced that this was a particularly noxious one for Jack. He'd seen the determination on the winter Guardian's face though, and with the sheer amount of purpose that had been in Jack's face, it was impossible for the Sandman to decline. Rather, Sandy believed that he hadn't much choice. He knew what Rapunzel dreamed about. The sad ones were about Eugene, but so were the happy ones. Sparsely thrown about here and there were memories that the girl had forged with Jack. Yet, these bursts of happy times with Jack were far outweighed by Rapunzel's dreams of Corona. Sandy felt that he had practically visited the foreign realm, for in Rapunzel's dreams, he had caught a glimpse of a village festival. Rapunzel had twirled about, long, braided hair flowing at her back as a dark-haired man looked on with a loving expression. He had seen the tower that Rapunzel had been locked away in, and he had watched her knock the same man in the head with the edge of a frying pan. Sandy had seen the way that Rapunzel struggled to shove the man into an empty wardrobe to hide him from her stepmother.
Sandy sighed and folded his hands together. Jack knew what he was getting himself into.
If bringing happiness to Rapunzel would also, consequently, make Jack happy too, so be it.
"I don't need to go back." Rapunzel crossed her arms over her chest with a stubborn expression on her face. "Jack, I can stay right here."
Jack cleared his throat and wove a dismissive hand at the girl. "No no," he responded, "you don't want to go back. Different."
Now, it was Rapunzel's turn to clench her hands into tight fists. "… you're right," she replied quietly. Only a week was supposed to have gone by, but so much more time had accidentally gone by. She'd begun to become more talkative. It was something that Jack had been particularly worried about, but eventually, the girl began to show more and more of her original personality. "You're right. I don't want to go back."
The Guardian rocked back and forth on his heels before leaping into the air, landing upon one of the precipices of Tooth's castle. "Why not? We're all attached to a world. That's why North was so angry when I brought you here. You're not supposed to be here, Rapunzel."
"You brought me here in the first place!"
Jack took a step off the edge of the precipice and landed softly before the brunette. He let out a sigh and pressed a frigid finger under her eye as he caught a stray tear from her. The gesture only drew more tears from her though. "Hey, trust me," he said to her. "Have I ever let you down before?" Without waiting for a reply (for the question was a rhetorical one), he produced another one of North's snow globes from his sweatshirt pocket. The snow whirled within the confines of the glass, filling Rapunzel's eyes with wonder. It wasn't the first time that the girl had seen one, but this was the first time that she had seen one right before her eyes. Only when Jack extended a hand to her did she tear her gaze away from the orb. She bit her lower lip, well aware that if she took Jack's hand, she ran the risk of losing someone else. Not that she had intended on becoming attached to Jack in the first place. She hadn't forgotten about Eugene, and Rapunzel wondered if Tooth heard her sobbing in her sleep during the nights spent at the castle. She still saw Eugene in her dreams and missed him dearly, but when she had lost him, it was Jack who took her hand to a magical world. Jack was the one who kept her company when she felt utterly alone.
Her fingers closed around Jack's.
"I trust you."
A smile broke out over Jack's face as he threw the snow globe forward and declared their next destination, "Kingdom of Corona!" The glass, instead of falling to the ground and shattering, remained suspended into the air. It expanded into a wormhole, the portal displaying the familiar interior of Rapunzel's tower. Jack felt Rapunzel's hand tighten around his own, but took a step forward anyways. "Don't worry, it's safe," he reassured her with a crooked grin. The familiar facial expression sent a pang through her stomach, but she nodded anyways and followed behind Jack.
Rapunzel blinked, bewildered that Tooth and Sandy were waiting inside the tower for them. "Right on time!" Tooth chirped, to which Sandy agreed with by enthusiastically nodding.
The Corona native was quick to release Jack's hand, as if her palms had brushed against something that burned hot. Her face grew dark and her eyes narrowed at the winter spirit. "Why did you bring me here?" she asked quietly, voice dripping with venom. "I didn't want to come back here. You tricked me!"
The anger in Rapunzel's eyes sent a stake through Jack's stomach. He knew that she wouldn't realize what was about to happen. It was only natural that she was still in the dark about what Jack desired to give to her. It was only right. He had heard Rapunzel whisper Eugene's name in her sleep, and more importantly, it would have been wrong for a Guardian to develop strong feelings for a human. A human's lifespan was a flickering candlelight in the scope of a Guardian's time on Earth. As long as the children continued to believe in Jack, he would be right as rain. But the cold that Rapunzel had caught and the blanket she wrapped herself with each night to keep warm reminded Jack that Rapunzel, too, was no Guardian. There was nothing eternal about being human.
So this was best for both of them.
Jack shook his head, quickly replying with, "You said you trusted me, right? Just… just trust me for a little longer, okay?"
"Jack, I don't understand what you're --"
Suddenly, Tooth's fingers were in Rapunzel's mouth, prying it open so she could get a good look at the girl's teeth. "Oh yes, I thought those choppers looked familiar!" she hummed and produced a capsule in a palm. The fairy gave it a shake, causing the baby teeth inside it to rattle about. "Sandy, ready for this?" The Sandman responded with a pantomimed thumbs-up gesture before he took the capsule from Tooth. He sprinkled a few grains of enchanted sand upon it before tossing a handful onto the lifeless Eugene. Rapunzel could only watch with a special kind of awe as the golden specks floated through the air and settled upon his body.
She gave a quick glance at Jack. Granted, Rapunzel trusted him, but did not understand what the three Guardians were attempting to achieve. She did not question their actions though, and instead, looked on with hands clasped in front of her.
Then Eugene stirred.
Rapunzel gasped as she fell to her knees to check his pulse with one hand, and with the other, grabbed his hands. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized that his fingers were closing around her own. "Eugene?" she whispered as the man responded with a weak grin.
Jack started when he felt a delicate hand on his shoulder. He saw that it belonged to Tooth. "Are you sure about this?" she asked him with a worried expression.
The other Guardian responded with a nod. "Yeah, I'm sure."
Tooth snapped her fingers, and Jack felt a veil envelope himself, Tooth, and Sandy. Rapunzel glanced over her shoulder, hands still tightly clutching Eugene's. There was a puzzled expression on her face though as she spoke softly, "Jack? Jack, where are you?" With her free hand, Rapunzel's hand slipped under her dress' belt. Hidden underneath was a dried snowdrop flower that had never left her side since she had received it. With an anxious expression, the girl tugged on it and clutched its brittle stem tightly in a hand.
"Oh, who's that?" Eugene said in a rather drowsy tone. The flower fluttered to the ground as Rapunzel used her other hand to stroke Eugene's forehead.
Sandy flicked his wrist at the reunited couple, grains of golden sands falling over their eyelids. Under the invisible veil, Tooth squeezed Jack's hand as Rapunzel whispered in Eugene's ear:
"No, nothing."