Hello, and welcome, my fellow authors and readers! Even though I'm a Hiccunzel shipper, I've started to ship Rapunzel with Jack Frost ever since I saw videos of them on Youtube, and that's why this story is inspired by the video with the same name, and so I really hope that you'll like reading this story. Enjoy!

"Absense makes the heart grow fonder? Yeah, of someone else?" ~ Wendy Webb

Cold, Cold Heart

"Hey, Blondie." Rapunzel jumped and spun around, her arms flailing as they tried to grasp an absent frying pan.

She giggled in embarrassment when she saw that the sudden break in her silence had been orchestrated by none other than the kingdom hero Eugene Fitzherbert, who was formerly known as the fugitive thief Flynn Rider. An irritating strand of golden hair flopped into her eyes, and she tucked it back, smiling at one of her two closet friends. The other one was perched on her shoulder, teasingly poking her, and no doubt, lightly scolding her for acting so uptight.

She laughed. "Hi, Eugene!"

Pretending to be upset, Eugene crossed his arms and frowned, whispering, "Aww, Blondie, don't use my real name."

Rapunzel shook her head and rolled her eyes. She turned back to the window, staring out over the icicle-laced town, and beyond that, the frozen wide, beautiful, teal sea. Her green eyes narrowed as she stared at the horizon.

Eugene watched his fiancée with a bit of confusion. "Rapunzel?" He asked.

His smile faded and his eyebrows raised as he stepped toward her. Leaning over to look her in the eye, he saw her gaze become cloudy. Strange, he thought, because Rapunzel's eyes never became dull or cloudy.

They only grew brighter and brighter, and Eugene sometimes thought he was staring at the sun itself than a princess who held some of its' powers. Her powers were more than just lovely singing, glowing skin and hair, or even the magic of healing. Eugene would notice that even when she was in a rare glum mood, her presence could brighten up everyone else's day.

Sometimes, he swore that he could see her in the dark, just by the glow of her golden skin. Animals befriended her, nervous people calmed in her presence, and normally bold and brash people averted their eyes as if her gaze would burn through them. Perhaps the tower, now with its' limited sunlight, had been dulling her powers? Eugene realized, with a small chuckle and a shrug, that he too had gotten lost in thought.

"Rapunzel," he softly called, laying a hand on her shoulder.

Pascal, who had been admiring the scenery outside, nudged his longtime friend, and perkily squeaked.

She jerked out of her stupor and sheepishly grinned. "Sorry, Pascal, Eugene, I was just thinking..."

Her voice trailed off, and Eugene would have bet every dollar he'd ever made, from stealing or otherwise, that her glow dimmed a bit.

A heavy thought was clinging to her heart, and knowing her, everything of her was as stubborn as Maximus.

"Thinking? About how handsome I am, suppose," Eugene said, smirking and throwing an arm around her shoulders.

She grinned up at him, and his heartbeat sped up. He looked closely at her skin, noting that it seemed not only a bit dimmer because of her thoughts, but dimmer because...

"Rapunzel, when have you last been outside?" Eugene asked.

Rapunzel shrugged as she studied her bare feet. Pascal answered the question for his friend by slightly frowning and shaking his head. The message was quite clear, Rapunzel hadn't smelled fresh air in a while.

"You need to get out more," Eugene jokingly laughed, trying to steer her toward the staircase, but Rapunzel stiffened, her eyes wide, and to Eugene's shock and horror, they seemed to be brimming with tears.

"You need to get out more," Jack said, twirling the magical staff between his fingers as he grinned at her.

Rapunzel blew out some air and smiled at the floor. As she clasped her hands around her back, she began to pace.

"I don't know," she said softly. "Sorry for all the questions. I always wanted to know about the outside world, and all Mother will tell me is how horrible it is out there."

She watched Jack amble over to her window and stare at the ivy curtain separating her tower from the outside world.

"It's a tough world, Punz," Jack agreed, his sharp blue eyes swiveling to look at her. "A very tough world, but it's the good things that make the world worth living in."

Rapunzel's curiosity and longing filled her, she had to know.

"The good things?" she asked shyly, tiptoeing toward him. "Like what?"

Jack turned to smile at her, and she felt a strange, fluttery feeling in her stomach, like the twirl of a skirt.

He leaned against the wall and whispered "Snow, for one thing."

A tear fell from Rapunzel's eye.

"Oh," she gasped. "I've. . . I've never seen snow, at least , not up close."

Jack stared at her, with his back straightening "Really? Never?"

The look that he gave her told so much; the spinning, cartwheeling descent of a perfectly symmetrical snowflake visualized in her mind. She could almost feel the tiny thing on her fingertips, and she impulsively lifted her fingers into the air, as if catching one. Jack smiled at her, a secret seeming to cling to his pale lips.

He too lifted his fingers, and suddenly, snowflakes tumbled down from the ceiling of the tower. Rapunzel gasped, and for a long moment, she simply stared up, with a warm sound of delight spilling from her lips. She twirled around the room, trying to cradle every snowflake in her hand, but the moment that a snowflake touched her tingling fingers, every snowflake vanished.

Trying hard to force down a wave of tears, Rapunzel jerked around to stare at Jack pleadingly. He frowned, with his shoulders tensing as he tried to make it snow again, but there was a lack of cold. Rapunzel thought back to the conversation they had shared not twenty minutes ago, a small argument that began when he found out that she had never ventured outside.

He had tried to convince her, while she had tried to pry details about the world from him, but this longing to feel fresh, beautiful snow filled her mind. . . and convinced her. She looked at him straight in the eyes, with her spring green ones speaking volumes to his winter blue ones.

Jack grinned. "Well, we don't have all day," He said, gesturing to the window beyond. "Let's go!"

Rapunzel shook her head to clear it of the old memory, and felt tears scatter across her face. She tried to stop the flow, but quickly realized that was pointless. She missed Jack. It made her spurt out a sob, and she stopped rubbing furiously at her eyes.

"Rapunzel!" Her eyes widened to see Eugene, with his nose just an inch from hers as he frantically yelled her name and squeezed her shoulders. "Rapunzel, can you hear me?"

Rapunzel wildly looked around, spotting anxious guards surrounding them. She heard thundering footsteps and her parents calling her name. Pascal clung tightly to her neck and almost fell off when she swung her head around. The crying Princess cupped her left hand around the little chameleon. She stroked him with her fingers and he squeaked to let her know that he was okay.

"I-I-I am s-s-so s-sorry," she gasped, her stuttering and tears making her cheeks warm from embarrassment.

"I j-j-just got l-lost in an o-o-old m-memor-r-ry, a-and-" a fresh wave of tears slid down her cheeks as Jack's face popped up in her mind.

Eugene stared at her in horror, no doubt wracking his mind for ways to help her.

"Let me through," Rapunzel heard a woman's voice say, as the guards straightened and backed away.

A smile of relief tugged at Rapunzel's lips for a moment when she recognized her mother breaking through the concerned crowd. Another fresh wave of tears formed, and Rapunzel collapsed into her mother's open arms. She whimpered, through her mother's thick winter robes which smothered her, and she could hear her mother issuing orders to the guards.

"Back up, back up, everyone! The Princess must be alone, if you please."

Rapunzel actually felt like giggling for a moment. Even when her daughter was sobbing in the middle of a hallway, Queen Primrose kept her manners perfectly intact. The urge to giggle disappeared, and Rapunzel tried to sniffle through her clogged nose.

"Come on, guys," Eugene said loudly, with his now brittle voice cutting through the dense cotton. "You hear Her Majesty."

"I second that," which came from the voice of Rapunzel's father, King Thomas, and that spurred the guards into action, and through her whimpers, she heard the thunks of many well-polished boots fading down the hallway and staircase.

"Come on, dear," Queen Primrose said, lifting Rapunzel's chin, so that they locked eyes, and the Princess felt Eugene's clammy hand slide into hers, and squeezed her hand.

She squeezed back a little, and a strange feeling stirred inside her. Perhaps it was the chilly weather, perhaps it was that she was getting cold feet after being engaged for six months, since the death of Mother Gothel. Rapunzel desperately wished that it was Jack who was holding her hand.