Chapter Text
Today had been weird. Weird, but nice. In a fun way too, but Jack assumed he had something to do with that, being the Guardian of Fun and all. The spirit smirked to himself, tapping the wood of the railing he was leaning against to a song he’d forgotten the words to. Frost permeated between the miniscule creaks in the wood, gleefully warping through the railing. The rest of the gang were snoozing away in the back of the workshop somewhere. Jack didn’t come to North’s shop often, well, now that he didn’t have to try and break it. Didn’t have quite the same feel to it anymore. He was grateful of that, preferring to soar from one area to the next, watching children’s eyes light up at the prospect of snow days and snowballs. Today was different.
Winter seemed to be holding itself on its own for the time being, plenty of thanks to Mother Nature. But that was no surprise to the eternal teenager. They’d been planning to meet up in the workshop for quite a while. It was so strange, just a few years ago, not even a decade, he’d been alone and confused, and by Mani, he was always so BORED. (Okay, not all the time, but it was much funnier watching Bunny slip on a patch of black ice when a greyhound was on his tail when someone was there to laugh at the Aussie with him.) Now he felt surrounded by people who actually saw him! Hiccup, Merida, Punzie. Rapunzel.
It had been Rapunzel’s idea in the first place. Of course it had been Rapunzel’s idea in the first place. To be fair, Baby Tooth had given her the idea. (How did Rapunzel understand the fairy? Toothiana should’ve been the only one who could!) The two had been excitedly chattering after Jack and fairy had floated on up to her castle window. Jack snorted. Baby Tooth and Punzie probably chattered more then he and Punz had that visit.
“Ooh!” The princess had suddenly exclaimed, nearly dropping the fairy. It took a total of five seconds for Punz to skitter on over from the opposite side of the room to his side. “Jack! Tiny Tooth and I just had a wonderful idea!” (The way she fidgeted when she got excited was just so cute.) Jack laughed, slinging the crook of his staff around her waist. Punz blushed. Still.
“Do I get to lock someone in a freezer again?” The spirit had rested his chin on her head; grin wide and bright (as Tooth always reminded him). The princess scowled at him, waving a disapproving hand at him, but not before she relented and leaned against him. (How could he get used to that? Not just the possibility of touch, but the consistency of it?)
“No! I can’t believe you did that!”
“Aw, Bunny thawed out eventually.”
“You always play tricks on him don’t you?”
“Nah, he should know by now I just like having a bit of fun with him.” As if to prove his point, a few of her brown locks stiffened with ice as he had huffed into her hair. Punz squeaked, and had pushed off him.
“Jack!” Punzie’s voice squealed just ALL the time. The winter spirit would never stop being amused by it. The princess continued to rub at her scalp, attempting to dislodge the frost. “If you keep acting like that, I won’t tell you the idea I just had!” Oh, Jack couldn’t have that. His usual grin fell into place. The draft from the window carried him up towards and over the princess, gliding over his back and front as he bent over to stare down at his friend.
“Yeah. Yeah, you will.” He had blown at her nose, watching her ire start to rise. She hated that. “You can’t ever keep a- Ow!” Baby Tooth had had enough of Jack’s teasing. She scowled at him, squeaking indignantly at him. A good peck to the cheek always shut him up. “Okay, okay. I’ll stop freezing bits of Punzie.” Though the brunette didn’t seem so sure, if her crossed arms had anything to say about it, her excitement started to get the best of her.
“Maybe, I’ll tell you. If you get down from there.” She gestured vaguely at the air, poking at one of his dangling hoodie strings. Frost debated the idea of floating there just to spit her, but Tooth was nudging his hand pecking a little indignantly at it. The wind eventually gave out from under him and Jack landed on his toes soon enough.
“So what is this grand idea of yours anyway?” His question eventually returned Punzie’s bright smile to her face.
A few months later, after more scheduling then Jack wanted to ever remember, the four were reunited. Not under strenuous circumstances either. He and Punzie, as well as Haddock and ol’ Spitfire were able to finally reunite. It wasn’t like Jack wasn’t able to seem all of them on a regular basis.
He could fly.
But Rapunzel and Merida were princesses and all that entailed. (If he had to sit through one more hour-long rant of complacency from Merida one more time… he’d do worse then throw snow in her face.) Hiccup, well, Hiccup could almost be royalty. He was the son of the chief of his tribe. Up until his dragon training days, most of his use had just been to shape weapons back into place and arranged marriages kinda deal. Did that make a Hiccup a princess as well then? He did scream rather loudly. Not only that, but the kid’s voice hadn’t completely broken either.
Today was something Jack didn’t realize he’d wanted. Rapunzel made each of them promise to try and schedule some of these meet up more often. They’d exchanged some sorta mailing-parchment-trading kind of thing. The three mortals seemed rather excited at the prospect of mail. Jack really didn’t get it. Written words didn’t seem to give the same kind of satisfaction as face-to-face contact.
How else would you be able to recreate the satisfaction of a great prank? Or the comfort of a bit of dry banter? Or even just the casual physical teases? He couldn’t pull Merida’s hair through a letter, just like how he couldn’t trip Hiccup up with his dragon’s own tail, or make snow clouds hover over Punzie’s head to watch her scrunch her nose to try not to sneeze when the white fluff landed it, or any of the stuff he’d done today. Letters were boring.
Jack pushed off the railing in the workshop, summoning Wind to leap up onto in instead. It was a quiet night, and Jack supposed that was okay. Even he had to admit (only to himself) that it couldn’t be fun all the time, 24/7. The winter spirit curled his toes, suddenly thankful that the wood beneath his feet wasn’t too grainy, and was sanded to perfection. He’d had too many splinters in his life, thank you.
Had Phil painted the robots red again?
Frost laughed, conjuring up a snowball in front of him. He hadn’t ruffled the yeti’s fur in a while, come to think of it. Jack pulled his arm back to swing, staff in hand, and SCHLOP! The snowball went sailing over the top floor, a stubborn spirit watching and refusing to use the assistance of the Wind to right his aim.
Plop.
“Whoops.” Wrong robot.
If he squinted, Jack could make out the robot, to the left of the one he’d meant to hit, the one that had just been painted, clatter to the ground, a rather comical puddle of red runoff pooling under its head.
…Were there any other unfinished toys handing around?
The next hour consisted mostly of terrorizing the yetis’, specifically Phil’s, unfinished work. He didn’t touch a single finished toy, only the half-completed ones. The ones with wet red paint were the best, though none quite seemed to replicate the perfect blood red color the first robot had. The workshop was still dark when he was interrupted.
The sleepy scuffling did nothing to cease his assaults on the toys. He’d been revealing in the successful maiming of an unsown doll when he felt a tug on his hood. Jack glanced over his shoulder; smile widening seeing his favorite post-blonde staring up at him, too sleepy to properly glare at him. Punz was an early riser, though not this early apparently.
“Jack…” She grumbled. The accused spirit chuckled. He procured another snowball. “Jaaack…” He laughed again, and his snowball hit another kite, scattering the sculpted wooden rods across the floor and allowing the canvas to drift to the floor. “Jaaaaaaaack…” The tugged was more insistent now, and Punzie’s ‘glare’ had hardened to more a ‘Could You Not’?
In response, Jack sent a snowflake fluttered towards her nose, snickering to himself, even if he did call a ceasefire on all uncompleted playthings. Punzie’s nose scrunched again. It was strange to get so little of a vocal response from the girl. Jack laughed again.
“Trouble sleeping?” He teased. One of the best parts about knocking the toys over was the varying loud noises they’d produce. Rapunzel grunted. Let’s repeat that, Rapunzel grunted. Grunting, being a sound you’d probably equate to large boisterous men and baboons.
“St’p ‘t.” She mumbled, grabbing hold of his arm, and burying her face in it. Jack froze for a moment, force of habit, and slowly relaxed. He’d lacked the kind of familiarity to casual touch. Well, being on the receiving of it at least, and even still, no one cuddled with Jack Frost. There was an awkward moment where Rapunzel was clinging to his arm as Jack tried not to let her fall over the edge of the railing, and finally, he slipped off the railing onto the floor, hands hovering over her back, unsure as to how you return the cuddling. (Yes, he wanted to cuddle, he didn’t mind cuddling. Jack could cuddle some more.) He didn’t have to however, because Rapunzel smiled a little blearily, tugging him down to the floor, and leaning her head on his shoulder, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “Mmm… soft.” Rapunzel murmured into his shoulder, melting a bit of the frost there and Jack didn’t mind the warmth for once.
“…Rapunzel?”
“Mmm?”
“…We should do these little meet ups more often.” The lost princess didn’t answer, just snuggled closer next to him, drawing her legs up to shift her head onto his chest. Yeah, this totally shouldn’t be a once in a blue Moon kinda thing.