So, I got my friend into Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons and now she ships Jarida. Since she doesn't have an account here I offered to write her a Jarida fanfic. She told me what she wanted and, well, here's the result XD most of it is my friend's idea but I added a few things that needed to be added in. So, for Jarida fans, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

"Jack! Jack!" Merida yelled, bursting into the workshop suddenly and making Jack drop the ice sculpture he had been making. He cursed before scooping up the pieces, hoping he could fix it somehow, but sighed in despair when he realised it was no use, and instead melted the ice. "What do you want, Merida? That ice sculpture took me all morning!" He snapped, glaring at her. He hadn't exactly been in the best of moods all week and had been deliberately avoiding Burgess. The last thing he wanted was Merida annoying him.

Merida rolled her eyes slightly and continued on excitedly. "Guess what? Catching Fire came out in the cinemas!" Jack rolled his eyes and formed another block of ice, beginning to work on his previously ruined creation. "Catching Fire? Isn't that, like, based off of a book?"

"Well duh!" Merida scoffed. "They made the Hunger Games a film, it would be stupid of them to not make the next book a film as well." Jack sighed, wondering if he could ignore her then decided against it. "Obviously, Merida. It isn't that hard to figure out. They did it with Harry Potter. But as awesome as the book might be, it doesn't mean the film will be awesome."

Merida groaned in irritation and sat down next to him, not noticing the way his face heated up. She finally had something interesting to talk about with him and he didn't care. What, had he made an unspoken rule about how every conversation they had must be an argument? "The film is never better than the book, Jack. But it doesn't mean you can't go and see it. Catching Fire is, like, the best out of all the Hunger Games books, I'm not passing up a chance to go and see it. I only wanted to know if you wanted to come with me."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Just because I said that it was interesting, it doesn't mean I like it. You can go and fangirl all you like over Katniss, Merida, but don't expect me to join you. Tell me about a Harry Potter film and I might be interested." He said, then returned to carving something out of the ice.

Merida scowled. "As if I'd want to go and see Harry Potter!" She scoffed. Jack looked up in surprise. "Why wouldn't you? I'd certainly choose Harry Potter over the Hunger Games." Merida glared at him slightly. "Are you saying that Harry Potter is better than the Hunger Games?" She hissed. "Obviously." Jack replied, having returned to his work. "The Hunger Games is about adults with mental problems that find it entertaining to watch kids kill each other, which goes completely against everything I stand for. Harry Potter is about an awesome young boy who finds out he's a wizard and is sent to Hogwarts to then later defeat the Dark Lord, Voldemort. Plus, Harry Potter was written for kids and has more books than the Hunger Games series, which ended really badly, since Katniss became an idiot. Why wouldn't Harry Potter be better?"

"Hey!" Merida yelled, leaping to her feet and causing Jack to drop his creation – again. He scowled and leapt to his feet, now ignoring the broken ice on the floor and instead glaring at Merida with a challenging look in his eyes, although she ignored it. "Katniss isn't an idiot! She's smarter than you, could you figure out hidden messages simply by the timing of gifts? Could you outsmart the Capital?"

Jack rolled his eyes and leaned on his staff, smirking. "Technically if I was in the Hunger Games everyone else would have a huge disadvantage. And I don't need food or water, either. If I remember correctly, Mockingjay is the worst out of them all, and in that book Katniss was an idiot. And don't even get me started on Katniss and Peeta's pairing name."

"H-hey!" Merida yelled again, heat rising to her face, because how could she argue with all the points he had made? And why did his smirk have to be so damn swee– uh, sickening? Did he have an answer for everything? "The pairing name for Harry and Ginny isn't great, either! So you can't talk!" Jack's smirk grew wider. "Maybe not, but it's not anywhere near as bad as the pairing name for Katniss and Peeta." He pulled a face. "I mean, seriously, they couldn't have gone with Katta or something?"

Merida groaned in annoyance. What could she say? How could she argue with that? She couldn't. "Just admit that the Hunger Games is better than Harry Potter, Frosty."

Jack sighed, twirling his staff and 'accidentally' freezing a few elves. "Okay, for one, I'm not a snowman, so don't call me Frosty. Two, I won't admit that because I'd be lying. Harry Potter has an epic storyline, awesome characters, interesting plot twists and has been around for longer yet people still love reading it. And it's loved by both adults and children. When the Hunger Games can top all of that, give me a call." With that, Jack began to walk away.

Frustrated and determined to fight on the Hunger Games side, Merida yelled as loud as possible. "Then I challenge you to a fight!"

Jack paused, then turned around with a curious look. "You what? What does a fight have to do with which is better?"

Merida rolled her eyes and explained. "We each dress up as a character from whichever we say is better, the Hunger Games or Harry Potter. We then use skills that exist in that series. So, for example, I'll use my bow and arrows, not fire ones, and you can pretend your staff is some kind of wand if you like, and use it to fire 'ice spells' as you call it."

Jack smirked, mischief sparking in his eyes, clearly beginning to get competitive. He then walked up to Merida and took her hand, shaking it. "You're on, Merida."

No one knows how they did it, but within an hour Merida and Jack had been dressed up. Merida had chosen Katniss (to which no one was surprised about) and Jack had, for some reason, chosen Malfoy. Merida rose an eyebrow in surprise while Hiccup just laughed.

"You chose Malfoy?" She exclaimed. "I would have thought that you would have chosen Harry or something! You freak."

Jack only glared at her. "Hey! Quit it! It would have been way too easy to guess who I was gonna be if I'd have chosen Harry. Besides, I don't recall anyone getting his side of the story! And I'm not criticising you about your costume! Talk about predictable!" He snapped

Merida glared back at her and readied her arrows. "Lets go, Frosty." She hissed.

After that, literally no one could keep up with what was going on. All of a sudden, arrows and ice went flying everywhere as the two threw attack after attack at one another, each desperate to prove which one was better and who was right. It's just a shame that they didn't see Rapunzel sneak off with Hiccup.

Jack had, somehow, managed to get his staff knocked out of his hands and was dodging arrows as he ran to it, in hopes of winning this battle. Technically he was at a disadvantage, all Merida needed were bow and arrows. As for him? Well, wands didn't exactly exist. Especially not epic ones that wizards and witches would use.

Jack had just grabbed his staff and was about to attack Merida with it when they were both grabbed by a strand of blond hair and pulled off of their feet. Groaning, they looked up to see that Rapunzel and Hiccup had joined in their little 'dressing-up war'. Poor Hiccup had somehow been shoved in a Dalek outfit. Rapunzel was smirking evilly.

"Doctor Who." She said simply, then sighed as Jack and Merida gave her confused looks. "You two were arguing about if Harry Potter was better than the Hunger Games. I say it doesn't matter, because Doctor Who is better than both of them."

Jack paled, almost as if he could read her thoughts. He knew that, by the smirk on her face, things were not going to go down well for him and Merida. Sometimes he wondered if it was a good idea to let Rapunzel hang around with him, she was becoming way too mischievous. Honestly, it sometimes scared him.

Rapunzel dragged Jack and Merida, who were still tied to her hair, over to a small room, and Jack paled even more. His main question was, how the hell had Hiccup managed to build this in an hour? And of course Rapunzel had to turn it into the TARDIS.

With one quick shove, Rapunzel forced Jack and Merida into the room and locked the door, holding the key and smirking. "You two can come out when you apologise to each other and admit that neither is better than the other because Doctor Who is the best." She teased, then skipped off with Hiccup following behind, muttering about how he shouldn't get involved in these kind of things.

Merida groaned and leaned against a wall. "To hell with that." She muttered, running a hand through her hair. "I'm not saying anything just because Rapunzel says so. North will notice we're missing eventually." She finally noticed Jack, who was slamming his fists against the door and yelling at Rapunzel to let them out. "Are you okay, Jack?"

Jack only started yelling louder, his pleas becoming more desperate and his breathing uneven. To be honest, it looked like he was ready to have a panic attack, and it was starting to scare her.

Cautiously, Merida reached out and put a hand on Jack's shoulder, and almost immediately removed it when she felt how tense they were. Jack's shoulders should not be that tense.

"Jack? Jack, it's okay, calm down." Merida soothed. Jack didn't show any signs of hearing what she had just said. His yells had turned to frantic screams and he appeared to be trying to break the door down. Merida began to panic. She didn't understand why Jack was reacting in this way. Was he afraid of being abandoned and left alone again? No, it couldn't be, she was in there with him.

Merida's eyes widened in shock as Jack slumped to the floor in defeat, shaking like a leaf and making small sounds that suggested he was holding back tears. It might have been the unusual way his shoulders shook. It might have been how strange he was acting, and in front of someone no less. Or it might have been that one, scared noise that escaped his lips that proved he was in complete terror. Merida wasn't sure what it was, but something made her bend down and gently wrap the quaking boy in her arms, rubbing his back in soothing circles as he clung desperately to her, allowing hopeless sobs to tear through his body. This only frightened Merida more, but she forced herself to keep calm. Making her heart beat faster would only make Jack panic more than he already was. She didn't know what he was even crying about, but a part of her really wondered if she wanted to know. Any past curiosities about what was beneath all those smiles and pranks vanished within an instant. All of a sudden, she didn't want there to be anything underneath those smiles and pranks.

Jack continued to cry into her dress, his arms encircling her neck and clutched her tightly, as if afraid she would suddenly disappear. Merida tried to figure out what was going on. He had never acted like this in the workshop before, and she hadn't seen him act like this anywhere else. And since no one knew much about Jack's past, since he refused to tell them, she didn't know much about his fears, either. There was the obvious one about being left alone again, but nothing much else, although Merida had started to notice that Jack liked to stay away from water unless it was frozen. So what could it be?

"Jack? Jack, you need to calm down. Come on, take some deep breaths." Jack obeyed, breathing in and out shakily. Slowly his arms loosened from their death grip on her neck until they fell to his side. "Now, tell me what's wrong."

Merida tried not to flinch as Jack's eyes met hers, should those tears be in his eyes? Then his mouth opened and he got out one sentence. "Merida, I'm scared."

Merida bit her lip. Something was off. Jack did not cry, he did not break down in front of other people, he did not cling to anyone, much less her, and he sure as hell didn't admit he was scared. Ever. A small part of her mind wondered if Pitch would show up for Jack's fear. "Why are you scared, Jack?"

Jack's eyes filled with more tears. "I – it's this room. It's so..." He trailed off, looking for the right words. Merida could tell this was clearly a touchy subject for him and quickly began speaking. "Jack, it's okay, you don't have to tell me-"

"No." Jack interrupted. "I want to. I – I feel like I can trust you." Merida stopped talking immediately. Everyone knew that Jack had issues with other people, so if he told you that he trusted you, then you couldn't abuse the privilege. So instead, she sat patiently and waited for him to start.

"This room, it... it doesn't have... an exit. I always needan exit, Mer. If I don't, I feel so trapped and alone, contained in one space like I'm some kind of animal, and then it starts to feel like the walls are closing in, making the room smaller and smaller and it's like I'll have to stay there forever, unable to escape and no one will ever hear me if I scream..." Jack stopped talking, breathing deeply again as if trying to keep himself calm. Realisation dawned on Merida. That's why he was freaking out. Jack was claustrophobic.

"Jack. Jack, look at me." She ordered. Jack's eyes flickered to hers, nearly making her heart break at how hopeless they looked. "You're fine. I wouldn't let anything happen to you. I won't ever let you feel like you're trapped again, and I will never, ever, let you be alone again."

Jack offered her a weak smile and shifted closer to her, nuzzling her arm and entwining his hand with hers, making the girl blush. Damn it. Why did Jack have to be so damn adorable at times? Wait... what? Did she just call Jack... adorable? What the hell?

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, until Merida finally spoke up. "Have you... have you always had it? Claustrophobia, I mean."

Jack sighed and pulled away, making Merida immediately start to miss his touch. "No. I mean, yes. I mean, well, I didn't have it when I was human. But I got it when I became a spirit." Merida tilted her head slightly, wondering if he was going to share why. Jack sighed again. "When I was human, I had a little sister, and one winter, she wanted to learn how to skate so I took her to the lake near our house to teach her. But I hadn't checked how thick the ice was, and it started to crack. I told my sister that we were going to play hopscotch, and I managed to save her with my staff and flung her to thicker ice. But I ended up trading places with her and I fell in and drowned..." Jack broke off, trying to get himself together. Just when Merida was about to tell him that he didn't have to continue, Jack started talking again.

"The moon saved me. He brought me back to life. But since I didn't have any of my memories, I didn't know what was going on. All I knew is that I was trapped somewhere and I couldn't get out. And it scared me. Even though the lake is pretty big, it felt so small and closed in. That's why I hate being in a room with no way out. Especially if the room is small. It just makes me panic and all my thoughts start to shut down and then the next thing I know I can't breath, because it's just like when I was trapped in the lake again."

Merida remained quiet for a moment, then began to gently stroke the back of his hand with her thumb. "Well, if we really need to, we can just break down the walls or burn the door or something." She joked, and was rewarded by Jack exploding into laughter. "And you can't do that now?" He grinned, with Merida smirking back at him. "Now what would be the fun in that?"

Jack laughed again, and the two fell back into a comfortable silence. Jack had somehow ended up next to Merida and was leaning on her shoulder, but she didn't have the heart to push him off. She couldn't help but wonder what could have happened to Jack if she hadn't been there. Would he have broken down the door? Would he have passed out? Would he have screamed at the top of his lungs until his throat hurt and banged his fists against the door until they ached and then dropped to the floor, crying and shaking like a leaf? She didn't know. And honestly, she didn't want to find out. The thought of Jack breaking down like that made her shudder.

"Sorry." Jack mumbled and slid away from her. Merida mentally cursed herself. Why had she shuddered like that? She knew that it would only make Jack think she was cold because of him. Right now, what Jack needed the most was the comfort of another person, since the 'get out of the room' option was unavailable. But she just smiled at him. "No, it's okay, you weren't making me cold. I was just... thinking."

Jack smiled again, making Merida realised just how much she wanted him to lean against her again. But he didn't. The conversation stopped for a few minutes, and Merida realised that it was kind of cold. She couldn't tell if this was because Jack was in the room or not, but she didn't think so. It was probably just a normal temperature that was too cold for her. And a quick glance at Jack proved her right.

His face was flushed slightly and there was a thin layer of sweat covering his skin. Normal room temperature usually dropped when he was in the room anyway, but sharing it with a summer spirit couldn't be comfortable. Jack confirmed this was a low, almost silent groan of discomfort. For some reason, a part of Merida screamed for her to go and comfort him and she listened to it, instead of the sensible part of her that said she would make it worse.

Jack nuzzled into her, his hands reaching up and playing with her fiery-red curls. "I love your hair." Jack mumbled. "It's wild and difficult to tame, if not impossible. Like you." Merida froze, thinking over what he had just said. North told her that whatever Jack said when he was too warm was always true. They were his feelings for things and people that he had kept bottled up inside him. So he wasn't talking nonsense. And he didn't hate her either, so the comment was most likely a compliment. Still, what was so bad about telling her that?

Unless...

Merida's stomach began to twist in a weird way. Was it possible that Jack... liked her?

No! Merida thought, shaking her head to try and clear her mind. Stop it, Merida. He doesn't feel that way about you, and he never will. So then why did she want him to have feelings for her? Why did the thought of it being anything else hurt? Did she love him back? But why would she, they argued so much? That was the reason they were even in this mess! Still...

Whatever train of thought Merida was on quickly crashed as Jack's arms found their way across her neck and his face buried itself in her hair, taking deep breaths. "It smells lovely, too. Tell me, did you put perfume on this morning? Because if so, it's divine." A blush crept across Merida's face and she tried to tell herself that North was wrong, that Jack didn't know what he was saying. "N-no, I, um, t-this is my natural scent." Dammit. Why did she stutter?

Jack sighed in content. "It's gorgeous. Everything about you is." Merida's blush increased. Half of her wanted Jack to be saying random rubbish, and the other half of her wanted so desperately for all of this to be true. She silently cursed Rapunzel for sticking them in this situation. Things wouldn't be so awkward then. Yet, instead of keeping quiet, like she should have, she spoke up. "U-uh, t-thanks. You're not to bad yourself. Mortal girls would be breaking your door down."

Jack sighed again, and began to play with her hair with one hand. "Mmm. But I wouldn't care about the mortal girls. Let some other poor unfortunate soul have them. I'd much rather be with you." Merida found her arms sliding around Jack without her command, and her mouth working without her permission. "Mind telling me why that is, Jack?"

Jack's head raised to meet hers, blue eyes locking as one hand ran through her hair gently, the other resting on the back of her neck. "Because I love you, Merida."

Merida barely had any time to register what happened, all she knew was that Jack's lips had locked with hers. And she couldn't deny that it was nice. In fact, she liked it. If her brain was telling her to stop, her body didn't listen. Her lips moved with his, allowing Merida to realise just how much she had wanted, no, longed for this. Just this one moment. How long had she ignored her feelings for him? Hints had revealed themselves once or twice but Merida just brushed them off. It was only until today that she had noticed.

In what was too soon, in Merida's opinion, the kiss ended as Jack pulled away, his face flushed. She didn't know if it was from heat or if it was a blush, but a part of her didn't care. She smiled at him, her heart fluttering as he smiled back. She, once again, spoke without meaning to, but this time, she didn't care. "I love you too, Jack."

Jack smile grew and they shared another kiss, only this time, it was Merida who started it.

Of course, Rapunzel chose that exact moment to open the door.

Jack and Merida froze and broke away, glaring fiercely at the one who had locked them in there. Rapunzel only sent them a teasing smirk that made both of them gulp. It was official – she would have to be banned from hanging out with Jack. "Well, I was expecting a lot of things for when I opened the door but I wasn't prepared for that."

Merida got up, shooting daggers from her eyes, looking ready to slap the living daylights out of the girl in front of her. She probably would have, too, had it not been for the fact that Jack had followed her up and was clinging to her arm, trying to hold her back.

"You idiot, Rapunzel!" Merida screamed, ignoring the protesting winter spirit behind her. "You nearly gave Jack a heart attack! Don't you know he has claustrophobia? If I hadn't been there, he might have passed out!"

Rapunzel shrugged, the smirk never leaving her face. "Come on, Merida, don't say that you didn't enjoy your time in there with Jack." She was rewarded by a fierce blush from both Jack and Merida.

Before the blond could be murdered, Hiccup came rushing up to them, making all three of them turn their heads and drop their jaws. For whatever reason, the boy was dressed almost entirely in black and had drawn strange markings on his arms.

"Guys!" He gasped. "Guess what? I've heard that City of Bones has come out! You guys, like, have to come and see it with me!"

Jack and Merida shared an evil smirk, silently agreeing that Rapunzel and Hiccup would be the next ones who would be locked in a room together, while Rapunzel's eyes widened in horror and she screamed at the top of her lungs. " OH HELL NO!"

Yeah, it's awful, I know, but it's the best I could do! I'm not really a Jarida fan, although I do understand why people ship it, so that's my excuse for the terrible fanfic.

Yes, Hiccup is a fan of the Mortal Instruments. I just had to add that in there XD

And now, I can finally start on that 11th chapter I've been meaning to write! This fanfic has kept me pretty busy.

Reviews are welcome!