Mic Mic: Shoutout to BloomingSnowflake and envyofclouds the reasons I finally got off my rear and started typing the rest of this!

Cruelty. This is absolute cruelty. It's been two years! You all have been so patiently begging me to update and I've been lax and terrible to you. =_= Not even gonna bother asking for forgiveness but I did miss you all so deeply and this story. My love for Jackunzel hasn't even waned a little. I have recently become trapped by their counterparts of Raye and Jace who are like the other sides to them. Heh so Jackunzel is still literally in my everyday they just are dominated by their reverse personality selves hehehe. But on to the story!

The wind that drifted across the lake caught strands of interwoven silver and flittering gold. It sprawled out in a haphazard glowing disarray upon the glittering chilled ice, reflecting the joint shards of otherworldly artistry tangled together as one. Rapunzel couldn't help but wonder if she was likely to burn a hole in the ice beneath her from the heat that seemed to radiate from her being. Jack was kissing her. Her Jack. She'd envisioned his kisses through pushed back hazy daydreams that she never dared to cater to. She felt it in lonely moments when she couldn't find herself under her own control. In those seconds of despair and cruel side remarks from her mother she'd catch snapshots of a daze of a dream like this. They were hidden moments, when the fairytale of her own foolishness might come true. Yet it was happening. Jack was here and he was closer than she ever thought she could possibly be to him.

Everything was spinning in her mind like a whirlwind of questions. As he eased backward she couldn't help gripping him tighter, fisting a hand in bunched hoodie strings and iced cloth. She needed more silence. She needed more of this steady expression of whatever Jack was holding away from her and finally relaying in his kiss. 'No. Don't end this moment. A little longer.'

"Wait..." The words escaped in a silent whisper, as her lips skirted along the surface of his. She barely traced them in a skittering dance that bared her soul a trace more than she thought she ever could. Lingering there her half lidded eyes could barely catch a view of Jack before her, his soft pants of a chill ghosting upon her lips with a powerful grace.

"Alright Punz we have a deadline to see the lights but if you want..." The sly curve of a half moon inched up to catch mischief upon his lips.

"Let's get lost a little longer." His voice curled out in a humming purr that made Rapunzel certain she had made a mistake. She was indulging in these turbulent feelings enough that they couldn't possibly be safe.

Why couldn't she ever seem to listen to her mother? She'd warned her that men were trouble. Jack had on a number of occasions seemed to be hiding something from her. It always came out through muttered grunts under his breath, hidden words that always brought her great confusion. Was this the forbidden secret that he wouldn't reveal? Did he want to do such things as touch his lips to her own but was aware of the crippling addiction? That had to be his reasoning.

Even now when he joined his lips to hers again she found herself longing for more. Every peppering callous of flesh that moved and caressed so fervently against her own called out for closer, faster, and for him to never stop.

She cared for Jack. She truly did care for him deeper than anyone. Somehow that all seemed to be expressed in this small action, a way for her to finally reach him and strike his heart with reality. Maybe he could understand more now what exactly he meant to her. Maybe now Jack could find himself as she found him, encompassing all the worth in the world just from the delivery of his smile.

The way the moonlight caught the tips of wild spun silver inclined her to exploration. Tentatively she let her fingers reach upward to slip into the crevices of the untamed strands. The nails of her fingertips curved inward to lightly caress in a gentle scratching motion along his scalp. The action prompted an abrupt stuttered groan that made the winter spirit's lips culminate with hers with a sudden added fervor.

"Aip." The sound in response made Jack curve backward his eyes half lidded as if he'd been jerked out of a deep sleep. "Wha-what is it?"

"You made that sound. A-are you alright or um did I hurt you?" Her voice was nearly breathless barely exiting in pants to utter the words. Jack's eyes widened a trace more as a guttural chuckle rolled out of his throat and his forehead fell upon hers. He rested there for a moment, absently nuzzling against it as if he were completely at bliss in the world. "The only thing that could ever hurt me Punz, is being apart from you."

"So is um...is that a no or-"

"Yeah it's a no." He uttered the words with a half chuckle, cerulean capturing her emerald hues as if he was finding something wholly new and sacred within them. She'd never seen him look at her that deepened way before, as if she were the only thing in the world he had observed before that was precious. His fingers trailed down to linger on her cheek, reaching to do an absent motion of stroking a thumb across the rosy flesh. He'd done it before sometimes within the tower, suddenly out of nowhere letting his chilled index drift down a curve of chubby sprinkles of crimson. She always had been curious as to why he did it, since his reply before was usually a muttered "no reason". This now had suddenly brought with it a fierce intimacy, as if he were tying together all their moments in this one brief action.

She'd never kissed anyone before. Thinking she might have at least been doing something close to okay with such an action gave her just a flittering trace of excitement. After all, the last thing she wanted to do was push Jack away and yet at the same time she wondered if she even dared to deserve to keep him so close. She was nothing more than a naive girl who had been stuck in a tower her whole life, but as she looked up into Jack's eyes she found she couldn't fight her own foolishness.

The youth of winter still seemed as if he were lost in a daze, his hands searching every part of her to commit it to touch. He couldn't help memorizing the moment. This had to be a dream, that was the only way it could possibly be true. He couldn't have anything he wanted. He couldn't even be seen by others and yet here he was, feathering his fingers through strands of moonlit gold sprinkled with the magic coursing through his Rapunzel. His... The thought of ownership was selfish indeed but he could care less in this moment. In this second he would let himself feel everything he banished and rejected and indulge in the essence that was purely the girl he could admit he was mad for.

He cherished her above all else. She was his to protect, his to bring a smile, and his to banish her loneliness whenever it might have come.

"Jack...um what was?" Her lips upturned in a delicate bashful smile, head ducking enough that a veil of gold could slightly obscure her from his intense gaze. The sparks of rubies dotted Rapunzel's cheeks more than gave her away she knew as she gripped the fabric of his blue hoodie tightly in anticipation for his answer.

His fingers curled under her chin lifting it with just the right amount of strength and gentility. "I kissed you." The simple answer with the curve of a smirk was surely more than enough to have done her in but she stayed firm, attempting to keep meeting his gaze that wouldn't seem to veer away.

"I think I picked up on that." Her head tilted to the side with a shy quirk of her shoulder as her hands twisted and wrung in the azure fabric enough that she thought for sure she'd tear it apart. The air seemed to grow heavy in that moment and she felt her mouth growing dry. Her voice was aching to escape with something to say, anything to affirm that things were okay, that she liked it but she couldn't think of any words that didn't sound childish and idiotic. She'd only been able to dream of the thought of this. Now that it had happened she was more tongue tied than she had expected.

Jack was sure he was on enough of a high to escape his usual self doubt but despite his greatest efforts he felt just an inkling of it seem to seep through. What if she didn't enjoy it as much as he had. What if he was too urgent and insistent in his touches. He'd spent forever it seemed holding himself back and fighting against his inner thoughts and desires that when he'd had a chance he couldn't help but snatch it for himself.

Perhaps he was better off being unseen after so many years of bitterness had seemed to bring his selfishness and jealousy to the forefront. But laying here on the frigid ice encompassed by Rapunzel's warmth he wondered if he could have this. Rapunzel was beautiful. Her flawless radiance began with her lips with words of reassurance she'd always offer him. His eyes hadn't bothered to neglect her outward compliments, tarrying often from the pristine strands of gold that flowed down her shoulders and drawn to the accentuated downy curves.

Every aspect and fragment of her reflected beauty. His fingertip slid down the curve of her neck, playfully stroking the pulse point to ease the blooming uncertainties rising within him. "If it made you uncomfortable Punz..."

"No! No it didn't not even a little it didn't!" She urgently sputtered out the words lightly shaking him with her tightened grip.

"Well...even if you said it did, you know I always help myself to a bit of trouble." The quickened half curl of his lip prompted him to receive a quick whap on the chest. His hand briskly swept up her palm to bring it to his lips and impishly nip at each of her knuckles. Her resulting wave of giggles and half-hearted attempts to pull her hand away had them tousling together on the ice.

"And what if I don't mind troublemakers?" She chided back with a gentle smile.

"Then I'll have to work hard to make it so you do." On that note Jack continued his assault diving to nip and bite playfully along her neck prompting a howling round of 'no's' and 'get back', from the girl beneath him. The loud noise of laughter and crackling ice beneath them woke the small chameleon nestled inside the backpack on the grass.

Pascal peeked out slightly his eyes narrowed a bit at the sight before him. It was true, Jack was a troublemaker and he was normally uninterested in anyone like that coming near his Rapunzel. However, he always gave the winter spirit a bit of slack. After all Jack was the closest thing his dear friend had to a decent human companion. He didn't count Gothel. She was the very reason Rapunzel had never really gotten her freedom.

Jack curled Rapunzel into his chest letting his finger trace the cracked lines in the ice beneath them. "You trust me too much you know. All alone on cracked ice with a spirit no one cares about. I could do anything out here and no one would even know what happened to you. How can you even trust me and know that I'll be able to protect you?" Jack's eyes lowered a bit frustrated at himself for what seemed like a sour mood he was dampening into their moment. His thumb traced the edge of her lip a frail curl of his lip coming up. "Why Punz? I think you'd rather kiss someone worthy of these lips."

"You don't know anything if you can't think of the answer." Rapunzel playfully blew a puff of warm air in his face making Jack scrunch his nose and rapidly blink his eyes. "It's easy, you're my Jack." The answer brought a new sort of life to the eyes of the winter spirit. A certain heaviness of burdens that had settled throughout the years seemed to find an ease of levitation from her words. He'd never belonged anywhere or to anyone. Thinking that he wanted to was an insurmountable understatement. He had needed somewhere, anywhere, and anyone to give him a sense of validation. He ignored it for as long as he could because weakness permeated the atmosphere of that desire.

'You don't need anyone. You don't need anything. You only need yourself and to have fun.' They were trivial childisn thoughts but out of them they brought relief from the final hour he was longing for and couldn't reach. The never-ending poetry of the whispering winds mocked him with joyous conversations and laughing voices. It was all so cruel. It had been for three hundred painful years. Now that the glow of his new life had filled him he found himself lost in a fresh reverie of curious hope.

"There isn't anyone else that could compare to the way I feel about you." Her kind tone almost felt too cruel for his heart of shards. This life he lived on the daily had always been more than emptiness, it had been a consuming void that ripped away his hope and feigned optimism.

But now...now it almost seemed as if he were taking breath again in waterlogged lungs. The catch of oxygen that freed him from the frozen lake after eons of time was returning to him in this moment. He found himself drawn into an indecision of longing for more air. He needed to hear her say the words, because everything in him fought against them. He always needed her time after time to repeat everything and overcome him with the impossible. He found he hated himself a bit for it. Unstable as he was, how could Rapunzel ever truly want someone like him. He was nothing but a wandering spirit, not even human to give her that simple assurance.

"You really, really don't know that Punz. You keep saying it but when we get out there. I mean really get out there to Corona, you won't-" Rapunzel's hands reached up her palms suddenly squishing his cheeks together.

"Now, now where's the fun in regrets Jack?" He stuck his tongue out at her with a playful wiggle the childish action more than enough of a response to free him from the prison of his thoughts. The words along with her gentle bell of laughter had them curling into one another cerulean meeting the twinkle of emerald jewels reflecting in the night.

"I don't think there's anything I can remember right now. I've never been the kind of spirit to aim for storing up regrets. A little chaos and mischief are more my style." He uttered the words that would have been a lie against his own fight for the truth. That's right. Right now all of those things were gone. Right now he only needed to think about Rapunzel and this moment they had together. He rolled over to pin his arms beside her eyeing her with a certain gaze of hunger in sweeping orbs of azul.

"Sometimes I wonder just how much mischief I can stir up with you Punz. How far will I have to go to earn a punishment I wonder?"

"Not far." Rapunzel replied with a slightly stern expression.

"Oh? Then just a little troublemaking is all you want?"

"I doubt you can manage that. You like to make your mark." She chided back earning a look of pride in Jack's eyes.

"Oh you know me so well."

"Mmm. I should hope so. After all you are my best friend."

The easy admission brought that spring of childhood giddness to bloom inside his chest and he couldn't help but lean in again and take her lips for his own. It was a quick and chaste kiss, enough to be what it was of an admission of unending gratitude. That simple touch that lasted a breath of a second left them both flushed and elated with mirrored ecstasy. It was an inner sort of pleasurable joy of vanished loneliness and gathered companionship. It was altogether something they didn't need to speak to convey. Rapunzel didn't have to think when she tangled fingertips in strands of iced silver and brought Jack's approaching lips towards her own again.

How many times did he kiss her like that she wondered. How many moments did her fingers get lost in frigid cold and his palms strike the burning ice beneath them to solidify it time and again. It seemed moments stretched into minutes of hours when their lips would come together and part once more. She'd never felt anything so wonderful in all her days. But more than anything it was the knowledge that she could share these moments with Jack. Jack wanted it the same as she did. Whatever this spinning emotion was brought to the forefront from every newfound discovery of his lip, he was indulging in it also.

His lips parted from her own, a delicate flick of his tongue tracing across his bottom lip as if to catch one last taste of their ecstasy.

"Punz I-I'm happy." The whispered words were upon her lips with the fullness of a smile and breath of laughter. "I'm so, beyond happiness right now." It felt in those seconds like Jack was relaying some vulnerable truth to her, his fingers lacing through her own and thumb caressing knuckles. "I never thought this would happen to me."

"Me either." Her followed giggle brought their eyes to open that certain brokenness healing itself trace by trace.

The silence of the night was pierced in that even laughter and Rapunzel easily curled into his chest ready to fall into the throes of sleep as easily as she always did whenever Jack drew her into his arms. "Sleep well Jack."

"You too Punz." And with those words they blissfully let sleep take them.

Mic Mic: So here it is, super short I know but better than nothing right? I figure I'd try and get something out and then I can work on the next part of such. This was essentially just fluff and the chance for you to know that yes everything is still okay with these two even after their kiss ^^ they are close enough and being that Jack always does these things Punzel can more handle it pretty well although she still is like Woah there buddy. So a review would be lovely but don't feel you have to. By the way Update reviews sometimes make me just like ,_, but but is that all you want from me? I love reviews with a lot of substance! I got some that literally are the reason I finally started writing on this again. I'm sorry that it's been so long. I'm in the Disney College Program now but honestly it doesn't take up too much time. It's very fun and lovely!

Overall I want everyone to know that I have not even a little bit given this up. I was thinking of starting a blog for the story? Tell me if anyone would be interested because I daily write cute little shorts for either Jackunzel or Race. I'll also probably love to write like requested like shorts from Nip at your Nose? Like give the word apple and I'll write a scene with them that involves that or something heh it'd just be a nice thing I think readers could enjoy between chapters. Anyway please review telling me what you liked best and enjoy! Here's hoping next one only takes a week =_= Oh and the chapter is called Whipped Ice Cream heheh because Jack is 100% whipped in love and also it's so sweet!