Chapter 8

Helloooo Friends! Sorry its been such a long time since an update or an authors note, I suck I know, I'll try to be better about it. Anyway hope you guys enjoy this chapter, stick around for the next one to see what's up with Jack and his disappearance. Reviews are very much appreciated, and big thanks to those who made it this far in to this sappy ass story for some fairly old movies now. Thanks for being as nostalgic for them as I am and reading this take on their characters! Much love to all y'all.

[Elsa]

Hot chocolate had gone surprisingly well. Anna was everything Elsa had remembered her being and so much more, she was just completely bubbly clumsily and ridiculously full of love. Elsa hadn't been able to understand it, after she had essentially ignored her sister for the last 10 years, the other girl still cherished her anyway. It had been a rough start ( after about 10 years of not really talking to anyone, conversation was not really Elsa's strong point) but Anna took over fairly quickly asking her how she'd been, how classes were, what she'd learned and slowly it became more and more natural. Slowly the dread that had made seconds in to eternity before she walked in morphed in to a dread that turned hours in to minutes, fearing that this moment of bliss would end. They had talked and talked until they had drained their cups and for hours past that. Anna made sure to catch Elsa up on everything that had happened in her life, how she had met Kristoff ( Elsa now had a personal vendetta against Hans of her own that would add to Jack's revenge plot), how her sister had come to realize her own powers, every club she'd been a part of , her favorite bands, colors, hobbies, everything. They even dove deeper, and although shaky, Elsa finally explained what had happened all those years ago that made her so afraid.

"Well if you're powers go out of control when your afraid and thrive with love, then I have nothing to worry about, because I love you and you love me, you have nothing to be afraid of." Anna said to her.

"See its not that simple Anna," she replied, " even when I hurt you then it wasn't because I lost control, it was just because of an accident. I thought that if even an accident could hurt you, its best to just not even allow an accident in the first place. If I stayed away from you, there could never be any accidents."

"So what changed your mind?"

"Well…to be honest it had a lot to do with Jack. I saw him control it so easily and when I accidentally hit him and nothing happened, I don't know. I guess I thought it'd be safe to learn to control it around him cause there was no chance I could hurt him. He's actually the one who pushed me to talk to you, and I'm glad he did. I can't promise I'll always be okay, but I'll try. I can control it pretty well now, but I still don't completely trust myself, not yet anyway."

"Please don't shut me out again, I don't think I can bear it after having this, this is the happiest I've ever been in my life," Anna said reaching for her sisters hand, but Elsa naturally flinched away and put it in her lap. Elsa saw the disappointment in Anna's eyes, " Sorry I just…" she began but Anna cut her off.

"No don't apologize when you are only doing it for me, I'm just being selfish is all. Why don't we do this? I'm not losing you again so here, anytime that you feel like you might not be able to control your powers or just need some space in general, we'll use a codeword!"

Elsa couldn't help but laugh at her childish excitement and chimed in, " I think that could work, what would the codeword be?"

"Uhhhh" Anna looked all around them until her eyes settled back on to her cup, " Hot Chocolate! But wait thats two words, its only supposed to be one…. Hmmm how about Marshmallow?"

"Marshmallow…" Elsa said slowly, she looked down at her gloves unsure if a code word would do much, but she looked back up to see the hope in her sisters eyes and realized as she looked in to them she truly did want the same thing. It was worth a shot.

"I like it," she finally said.

"Then marshmallow it is," her sister said smiling at her giddily. Elsa smiled back at her but noticed in the window behind them that it was beginning to get dark outside.

"Oh my god, its so late! Didn't you say you had a project due tonight? We should go home." Elsa began gathering her things and stood up to see Anna still sitting in her spot, staring up at her with tears in her eyes. "What's wrong" Elsa asked her face burning, she would never forgive herself if she'd somehow messed this up at the last hurdle. Anna simply shook her head, stood up and said, "Absolutely nothing in this world. And you're right WE should go home, she hooked arms with her sister and happily pranced out the door of the cafe, the two girls walking home together for the first time in 10 years. As they reached the house, Anna squeezed Elsa'a arm which she was still holding on to, bringing the other girl in as tight as possible.

" I'm going to bake Jack the most amazing basket of thank you muffins that have ever been created!"Anna declared.

Elsa smiled at that, "Make brownies," she said, "he loves brownies." Anna pulled away from her and gave her a sly smile.

" So are you going to do anything for him next time you see him?" She asked.

"Yup. I'm gonna punch him."

"WHAT?!"

"He was supposed to come with me today and he just left without saying anything! Don't worry I'll hug him afterwards to make up for it."

Anna rolled her eyes at that, "Mayyybe you should think about doing something a little more special. He did reunite you with your amazing sister and all."

"Like what?"

"Well…. Winter formal is coming up, ask him to go with you."

"Like on a date? No!"

"Why not! Just imagine," Anna said painting a scene in front of them now, " The two ice masters of the school coming to winter formal together. It'll be the cutest thing since baby Yoda!".

"I'm not asking him to formal, its JACK."

"Yeah I know, the STRAIGHT HOTTIE in all your classes."

"What?"

"Come on Elsa, you're telling me that you're not even a little attracted to him? Just a teensy bit?"

"Anna, we're just friends, he doesn't even see me in that way."

" All I'm saying is that HE is always talking about you when we're all together, and you always open up around him. He's the first person you actually let get to know you in the last 10 years, and when you're with him, you're always the Elsa I remember. The Elsa you were today. Just think about it." Anna said and headed through the door. Oh and after that it was all Elsa could think about. She thought about his blue eyes that literally sparkled when he gave her his classic mischievous grin. The sharp jawline and the way silvery hair was just perfectly ruffled. The way his shoulders shook when he laughed to hard, the warmth of his hugs and his sincerity whenever he worried about her. How graceful he looked whenever he flew through the sky or really used his powers, how soft his lips looked. Just… Jack.

No! This was insane. She headed to room thoroughly prepared to focus on her work and put this whole Jack thing behind her.

The morning sun warmed her skin, Frozone had created an entire arena today, with snow covered hills all layered up in booby traps with an ice fortress at the center that they were supposed to break in to. She crafted her own ice board and slid down the mountain, an arsenal of ice shards ready in hand. She seemed to have tripped one of the traps because it began to rain snowballs on her but she easily avoided most and shot down any other ones. Suddenly there was a large blast that seemed to have come from her right. As she looked in the direction she felt another blast from underneath her and was launched in to the air. Hastily she made and ice shield as she came to the ground, but the ice was too thin and she crashed through in to a hollow cavern with what looked like stalagmites sticking up out of the ground. She tried to collect her thoughts in her frightened state, figure out what she could do, but she didn't need to do anything. She felt an arm slip around her waist and somehow she was in the air but she wasn't falling anymore.

"Careful there Frostbite, this isn't amateur hour."

"Shut up." She said smiling in to a pair of bright blue eyes. They were both so close that she could feel the rhythm of his breathing and his heartbeat racing against hers. The sun coming in from the crack in the ice she'd fallen through, was giving him a halo.

"Shut up?" Jack said, " It's actually pronounced thank you. It's about time I got some proper appreciation."

"Proper, I can do proper." With that she grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled his lips on to hers, felt the brush of their cold softness and then the increased pressure as he pulled her closer, his fingers combing in to her hair.

She woke up. Crap Elsa thought to herself. What had Anna done to her?

After a breakfast of waffles and hot chocolate the two girls walked to school together in the morning, Anna swinging the fresh brownie basket with a bounce in her step. As they entered the school, Elsa got ready to split off when Anna asked,

"Where are you going? Class doesn't start for another 20 minutes, come to our table!". Elsa blushed. " No its okay, I don't want to intrude on you and your friends."

Anna grabbed her hand, " Elsa coooome ooooh. They've been dying to meet you. Their friends with Jack too so they won't mind, they hear about you all the time anyway. Jack'll probably be there too, he's always with us in the morning. Besides I want to you to officially meet Kristoff".

As she was dragged over to the table, all Elsa could do was try to hide her blush that came when she thought of her dream and the thought that Jack talked about her to his friends. As Anna brought her over to the table she saw Hiccup and Kristoff's eyes widen.

"Uhhh… Hey Anna….Hi…..Elsa." Hiccup said looking a little confused.

"Hey Guys!" Anna chirped back.

" So I'm guessing hot chocolate went well," Kristoff said to her sister.

"Amazingly" Anna replied kissing him on the cheek. It made Elsa smile to see her sister so loved, so happy, she deserved it. Now Elsa was considering whether she owed it to herself too.

" So Elsa," Hiccup asked. "Where are you off to first?"

"Oh Me?…Well I uh, I have history of magic first." Dammit she'd spoken that way too fast. Her heart was racing. She really needed these people to like her. She hadn't had to actively make friends in god knows how long.

Hiccup didn't seem to mind her stumbling. He simply smiled and asked. " Hey isn't Jack in that class with you?"

She nodded, " You haven't seen him around have you?".

"Yeah!" Anna jumped in, " I have to give him his brownie basket for setting up the hot chocolate meeting yesterday!"

"No I haven't seen him yet," Hiccup said, " I messaged him yesterday but he still hasn't responded yet. Might be late or busy or something, I'm sure he'll come in last minute and really try to do everything to make the most noise possible getting to his seat."

Elsa laughed at that, trying to hide her disappointment.

He never showed up. She waited for him in every class, staring at the door hoping he'd walk in late but he never did. She'd messaged him and gotten no response, she tried calling him and it went straight to voicemail. She'd emailed him all their assignments hoping she'd get a thank you response, but still nothing. She was left there refreshing and refreshing her screen to no avail.

[Eugene]

Rapunzel stared at him from across the bench looking nervous.

"Okay…" she said, " Just promise you won't freak out." He rolled his eyes at that.

" Blondie, we go to a school where people fly dragons, punch through walls, and shape-shift. Do your worst".

She gave a sigh, gave him a small smile from across the bench and took his injured arm. He half expected her to take out a paintbrush and somehow paint back the rest of his skin or something but instead she grabbed a strand of her hair and began wrapping it around his arm. It was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen, and a little gross but he was far too intrigued by where this was going to try to stop it. She then closed her eyes and began to sing. He began to seriously question whether she was clearly insane and in to some weird voodoo shit ( he'd met weirder girls before), but before he could plan his escape route he noticed that her hair had started to glow, WTF was happening? Once she'd finished her little song she opened her eyes nervously and let her hair fall away. He slowly brought his arm closer to himself and examined it to see it had been perfectly healed. His arm had just been healed, not by a healer or med student. No, his arm had just been healed by a short little astronomy art- student and her magic glowing hair.

" Oh my god, you're totally freaking out."

"I'm not freaking out!" He said defensively, " Its just not really what I expected."

"What happened to school of dragons and shape-shifters."

" Yes, well, they take dragon and shape shifting classes, you paint, you don't take glowing hair singing healy classes!"

"I take anatomy and health. I just try not to really tell people about it."

" Well why not?"

" Because its something people try to take for themselves. If it was my hands that did the healing it wouldn't be an issue, but because its my hair, people always want a strand, or a piece, or will pull on it for their own purposes. Once its cut though, it turns brown and loses its power. I need people to believe my specialty isn't something I can lose, if I lose this, I won't be special anymore. I won't be able to go to this school and then I'll really have nothing."

" Who would want to take that away from you?" He asked. She brought her feet up to the bench and wrapped her arms around her legs, hugging them and resting her chin on her knee. The sun was starting to set now, and her hair caught the light and began to glow in a similar way as it had moments before when she had healed him. Her eyes which had been so full of life only moments before when they had played paint ball had a more somber look in them. A look he knew only too well. A look that for some reason, made him really irritated to be seeing on her.

"You'd be surprised", she said to him, "I like to think people in this world aren't cruel or wicked, but there is no doubt that some of them definitely can be. I cant take the chance that someone might not like me, and might not be a person. Very few people at the school know and they can't all know. I need to keep it a secret."

" So why tell me" he asked her. She paused for a few moments, looking off in to the horizon, thinking to herself. She then turned to him and gave him the softest and warmest smile he'd ever seen in this world.

"Because Eugene Fitzherbert, no matter what you'll have the world believe, you are one of the most kind-hearted and genuine people I've ever met. You are good, and I can trust you."

He was taken aback. There was no way she could actually have a good opinion of him. He tried to play it off and tease her about it, " Hah Blondie, trusting the man who literally tried to steal your artwork to claim for himself at the beginning of this year, that you then had to blackmail. Probably not the best idea."

"It is."

"What?"

" I trust the boy who notices others pain even if they don't say it, because he's been through it himself. I trust the boy who followed through on his end of the deal, even though he really had gotten almost everything he needed to out of it against a girl who couldn't really do much if he hadn't. I trust my paintball teammate who gave me a taste of freedom, power, and friendship. That guy, I'll trust any day." She said with a smile.

" Now come on! We're gonna miss the lantern painting and I hear thats the best part of the whole thing." She jumped off the bench and began running down the grassy hill beckoning him to come with her. Her magical golden hair flowing behind her, like a golden trail leading straight in to the sun, the heavens, the light.

" I hope Blondie." He said under his breathe. He hoped he genuinely was everything she thought he was.

[Merida]

She rode through the woods her bag of arrows slung across her back, bow in hand. She needed to get away, the cold wind mixing with the sweat on her brow gave her a much needed cooling off from the feelings boiling inside of her. She'd been cold to Hiccup today, completely irrationally gone off on him and tried to cut all ties so that he would never speak to her again. SO why did she feel so awful doing it?

Sure they had started to become friends, but its not like she'd known him for all that long. Hell she'd never even spoken a single word to the boy until this year. She'd dropped friends from her life that she'd known for far longer than she'd known him, several times at that the annoying twats. The difference was that she hadn't wanted to take him out of her life and she knew it. He'd been so kind and so funny, and he wasn't intimidated by her in the least, supposing he couldn't really be after spending all his free time riding a dragon. It had been refreshing.

He was the only man she'd met in her life that didn't seem to care at all about any of the silly antics her mother always went off about and didn't really have a misogynistic bone in his body. So why had she accused him of it of all things? She hadn't really thought about what she had been saying at the time, all she knew was that she couldn't be near him. Every time she saw him her mind flashed back to the day she spent with him and his dragon. When they'd been caught by her mother. She thought her mother would lecture her for hours afterwards, but she hadn't. She actually seemed pleased.

Apparently Hiccup was the son of a fairly prestigious man himself, even though he didn't seem like it, and he was one of the most accomplished students the academy had every seen. Her mother actually approved. This only made her more certain that she needed to get away from him. She couldn't afford any distractions. She would become the greatest archer in the world and there was no man that the world would turn to to credit her accomplishments. She'd earn it all herself, no-one would "let" her do anything. Feeling anything for this scrawny ( although very sharp-jawed) boy of all people would go against everything she had fought for growing up. Her only option was to squash it before it even started, rip it out at its roots, and there would be no problem.

As her horse jumped over the first log of her self- built forest obstacle course in the back of the school, she whipped out an arrow, let it soar, and… she missed. Well she didn't miss completely but it had hit the outer ring of the target rather than on the bulls- eye as she did every single other day. She tried again and again, and even as she went throughout the coarse in the entire afternoon she had only managed to hit the exact center twice. She panted sweat dripping down her frustrated brow. She let out a shriek as she pulled an arrow out of another missed target. This was not good. Her next competition was only two weeks away and it was the last round to becoming a qualifier for the international championship. She couldn't afford to be missing such easy targets.

After another hour of little progress, Merida finally dismounted, led her horse back to its stable and headed for the locker-room. It was nearly empty except for Astrid who was unlacing her muddied boots one of the benches across from her. As Merida put her bow away she heard the other girl say, " So this is the legendary bow you used this past weekend huh?". She turned around to see Astrid walking towards her to get a closer look, "Mind if I?" Astrid said gesturing to the bow. Merida simply nodded impatiently, not much in the mood to chat. The other girl was too distracted by the weapon to notice her slight annoyance however.

" I've never seen this design before in my life." She marveled, " How did you manage to get one so light. There's no insignia on it, must've cost you a fortune to get it custom-made, which company did you go to?"

"I actually made it myself".

"Since when have you known how to make weapons? I've never seen you take an interest in anything that takes time away from target practice."

"Just learned actually. Figured it would help my skill if I knew everything about what went in to making it and designing it too. One of a kind, well two of a kind really since he made one at the same time I did to give me instruction".

" He? What craftsman had the capability to take an apprentice for such a short period of time."

" Actually he's not even a master really. It's a kid that goes here, ever heard of Hiccup?"

" Hiccup of Burke? He made that? Wow gotta give the kid some credit, I guess his skills glowed up with the rest of him, thank the lords for that transformation. You think he'd make me an new axe? I've been meaning to get a new one."

"I don't know," Merida replied, " he seemed pretty backed up last time I talked to him."

" Maybe if I bring up the time he made me lose the 7th grade dodgeball tournament, he'll feel bad and expedite the process a bit."

Merida simply shrugged, " I don't know if it'll work, but I guess you could try it. Not very promising though."

She didn't really have any idea what his schedule looked like at the moment, but something about this beautiful blonde girl meeting up with him was unsettling for her.

As Merida walked in to school the next morning she saw Hiccup waiting for her near the door. She steeled herself, just kept looking straight even though she could see him waving at her through the corner of her eye, and walked by, passing him without a glance. She could hear his foot steps as he stumbled to catch up to her.

"Merida!" She heard him call, but she simply kept walking. He came up next to her, struggling a bit with his leg to keep up to her pace. She slowed down a bit, but didn't stop walking.

" Uh, Merida, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Talk".

"Well can you stop moving for two seconds?"

She abruptly stopped, and spun on her heel to face him, trying to give him her best uninterested glare.

"Make it quick, I have to talk to the teachers about traveling on Friday before class starts."

"Well, uhh, frankly I was hoping you'd do most of the talking. I just wanted an explanation as to what exactly happened yesterday."

"What happened yesterday?"

"Yeah, you know, the fact that you're all of a sudden ignoring me, avoiding me, yelling at me. Anything ring a bell?"

"Let me get something straight. I am neither ignoring you nor avoiding you, I'm talking to ya right now aren't I. As I said, our business is simply finished, we can now go back to our lives before I asked for your help, and its not like I ever talked to you then."

"But what did I do to make you want to go back to that?"

"Why do you assume you did anything?"

"Well I must have. You used to hang out with me, laugh with me. We were friends, and now all of a sudden..,"

Merida took a breathe, this was the moment, the moment she'd have to end it once and for all.

"Then that was your mistake." She said softer than she'd meant to but she couldn't help it.

" What?" He asked her. She steeled her voice once more.

" What ever made ya think we were friends? Because ya made my bow and I let you watch me shoot? I only spent any time with you with one goal in mind, getting my bow done, any dilly dallying that came after that was never of any interest to me anyway. I'm sorry ya got the wrong idea but just because ya made my bow don't think for a second that thats supposed to give ya any glory over who I am and what I do."

Hiccup stared at her taken aback, a look of hurt and slight disgust in his eyes.

"Is that what you think of me? A glory seeker?" He said, it seemed as though he was going to go on but before he good a " Hey Merida!" Interjected from behind them. Merida turned around to see Astrid coming up to them.

" So this is your friend that made you the bow right? Hiccup?"

Before Merida could respond, Hiccup said, " Really only barely a business partner. More of a means to an end." He glared at Merida turned his gaze towards Astrid and said,

" Hiccup, I'd stay and chat for longer but I'm getting late for class. It was nice meeting you."

Merida watched him walk away, her heart breaking at every step away from her he took.