#...of a sort

***

Violin music echoed around the ballroom as colorful dresses and dark coattails flew, moving to the rhythm of a song Princes Rapunzel had long since grown bored of. She slumped in her seat, chin cupped in her hand as she leaned into the red velvet of the throne’s armrest.

Her unoccupied hand strayed to her long skirts, and she started to twirl and untwirl the pastel-pink chiffon of her dress. Dying sunlight was streaming in through the long windows, providing slightly different lighting for a scene that had not changed in the least since mid-afternoon.

She wished she could steal away to her room, where she could paint a mural or devour a storybook. But alas, leaving one’s own debutante ball would probably not go unnoticed.

A few young princes had asked her to dance already. There was Prince Eugene of Kingdom Fitz, a funny and charismatic enough fellow, but with a charm that didn’t feel wholly sincere. His voice was too smooth—almost oily—and his multitude of compliments and jokes came a little too easily. He was a fine dancer, although his movements were just uncoordinated and just half-hearted enough to suggest that he wasn’t here for a love of royal balls, or a desire to woo a young lady. She’d rushed to the restroom after their dance, half expecting to find her fine jewelry and pricey silk handkerchiefs missing.

Then there was Prince Hans of Kingdom Westergard, a man with an overly-innocent, almost sickly-sweet demeanor who had even more praise to offer than Prince Eugene. The man seemed to change his approach more often than a capricious sparrow. When compliments were met with forced smiles and barely concealed indifference, he moved to jokes. When jokes fell flat, he moved to working in comments about his kingdom’s vast wealth and resources. When bragging earned him only annoyance, he moved to name-dropping just about every important political figure a princess could imagine, and how he was well-acquainted with every one. By the end of the dance, Rapunzel was starting to miss Prince Eugene’s fake “charmer” persona. Though it was hiding any number of ulterior motives, at least it had been consistent.

Her most recent headache was a bulky blonde—Prince Kristoff of some kingdom Rapunzel couldn’t even recall the name of. He was a dreadful conversationalist, not knowing how to do much while waltzing besides awkwardly stare at her and occasionally make insensitive comments about the state of her family’s castle. Whether he was intentionally trying to get in jabs at her or had never learned a single thing about manners in his entire life was anyone’s guess. She had frantically tried to save the conversation by asking him about his kingdom, and finally gotten him to talk about something besides whether the ballroom’s floorboards needed replacing.

It turned out he had plenty to say about ice-collecting and reindeer. It also turned out, however, that he could talk about very little else. Rapunzel was nearly asleep on her feet by the time someone saved her by cutting in.

“Cheer up, Your Majesty,” came a nasally voice beside her, drawing her back to the present. “I heard the ball’s only going until two in the morning, so just five more hours!”

Rapunzel glared up at Duke Haddock, a young, freckly man about her age. Though he was one of her closest friends, he was rarely one to sugarcoat situations that seemed dire. In this case, a very long evening filled with stuffy people, political scheming, and the same five violin sets played again and again and again.

The princess sighed heavily. “Are people really going to do nothing but twirl around and eat finger foods for five hours, Hiccup?” She was one of the only ones allowed to use the silly childhood nickname.

Hiccup snorted. “Oh, give them more credit than that. They’re also gossiping about who’s sleeping with who, who’s betraying nations they’re allied with, who’s planning out coups, that sort of thing.”

She rolled her eyes at him, and the young duke sniggered.

“I thought it would be fun,” she admitted wearily.

Hiccup only shrugged. “I told you. It’s honestly easier to count the handsome young princes who don’t have some kind of hidden agenda.”

“Or are more interesting than a pile of bricks,” Rapunzel lamented.

Hiccup leaned against the wall, raising an eyebrow at her. “You know, I have to admit, I didn’t see you being this picky. You always liked the idea of finding love at one of these fancy-shmancy balls. Stumbling on some perfect dance partner who you can run off and chase your dreams with.”

“None of these guys seem like the type I could go dream-chasing with,” she complained. “I honestly can’t see myself being married to any of them.”

Hiccup looked around the room and then back at Rapunzel, brow furrowed in sympathy. “This isn’t what you were hoping for, huh?”

She shook her head. “Not at all.”

It was true that having a husband who was either a painful bore or a scheming snake sounded plenty unappealing, but her disappointment in the ball was rooted in more than that.

It mostly stemmed from the fact that none of these princes were Jackson Overland.

It had been foolish to hope she’d find anyone even remotely like him. He was a peasant, after all, and the very furthest thing from what her parents would consider marriage material. He was so far removed from the world of balls and crowns and royalty that he would no more know how to function in high society than a squirrel would know how to function in the ocean.

Nonetheless, there was something about Jack that Rapunzel had always been taken with.

His family was very poor, and she didn’t see them often. They lived on the edge of the kingdom, working a small farm and selling wool from their flock of sheep. Jack Overland was always so full of life, running around the woods and scampering up and down trees quicker than a raccoon. He didn’t seem bothered by the fact that his clothes were ragged and filthy, or that his face was usually caked with dirt. His energy never ran out, whether he was swinging from tree branches by his legs or weaving together enthralling fireside tales. Whenever Rapunzel saw him, he was nearly always laughing.

Sometimes, Rapunzel’s parents took her around the kingdom to check in on their subjects and make sure everyone was relatively happy and healthy. The princess came to look forward to these trips, counting down the days until she next saw the boy with the chocolate hair and the tattered trousers.

Jack Overland had never treated her differently because she was a princess. He didn’t see her as some larger-than-life figure, too intimidatingly powerful to even look in the eye. He didn’t think twice about befriending her when they first met, offering her a bouquet of wildflowers and a quick bow (his only real acknowledgement of her royal standing) before asking if she wanted to see his favorite places in the forest.

Her parents forbade her from going the first time—princesses weren’t fit to run around in the dirt and leaves, after all—but that hadn’t stopped them from sneaking out later on.

Even in the long, bleak nights of winter, Jack still never lost his general joy for life. Rapunzel and her parents went around to check on the kingdoms’ winter food stores, and every time they stopped by Jack’s village, he wasn’t without a sled or a pair of ice skates or a cup of hot cocoa. He always found ways to have fun, even when the frosty air made it an easier option to give up and be miserable.

No one at this party had filled Rapunzel with that sort of warmth, but admittedly the night was young. Maybe it wasn’t too late.

“It’d be nice to have just one good dance before the night’s out,” she said, turning to Hiccup.

He shrugged. “Doesn’t seem too unreasonable an expectation, My Lady. Good luck.”

Rapunzel’s gaze strayed down the marble steps in front of the throne, landing King Frederic and Queen Arianna. They were lost in their own world, spinning in circles of soft violet and deep blue. She dreaded the moment when they decided it was time for a break and returned to their thrones beside hers. Ask eagerly about how her night was going only to have their faces fall when she told them how abysmal she currently felt about her romantic prospects.

They’d been worried about securing a good marriage for her for years now, and making sure the kingdom would be left with capable monarchs after they were gone. Her current options looked rather bleak.

Rapunzel knew her parents weren’t keen on forcing her into things. If she truly didn’t want to wed any of the princes presented tonight, Frederic and Arianna would not make her. Nonetheless, she wondered if the guilt of causing them to stress out waiting longer would be almost as bad.

“Excuse me, Miss. May I have this dance?”

She started at the soft, feminine voice drifting from the other side of her throne, its owner seemingly having come out of nowhere. She turned to see a girl about her age, hair hanging in long, swan-white waves over a ruffled light blue dress and hand extended expectantly.

The young lady was stunning enough that Rapunzel did a double take. Her gown billowed around her in translucent blue ripples, the skirt swirled up into the shape of a rose near her waist. Her bodice was lined with diamonds formed out of silver jewels, and a wispy collar wrapped around her pale neck like fog. Her shoes, gleaming, translucent high heels, were the color of ice and seemed to be made entirely out of glass. The outfit went with her eyes perfectly, which Rapunzel realized were a clear, crystalline blue. Between the river rapids hair, the turbulent waves of azure, and the glinting streamwater eyes, the maiden looked like she was a piece of a rushing creek that had broken free and impetuously decided to attend a ball.

She wore a lopsided half smirk as she beckoned Rapunzel forward. The expression seemed oddly familiar, although Rapunzel couldn’t imagine where she’d seen it before.

If she had met someone anything like this girl, Rapunzel was certain she would remember it.

“Um…” Rapunzel glanced at Frederic and Arianna, still too wrapped up in their own dance number to pay her any mind. They weren’t going to stop her.

Hiccup leaned up against the side of the throne, face breaking into a huge shit-eating grin. “Well, Your Majesty, I think your wish may have been granted. At the very least, this night got interesting.”

The blue-gowned girl’s face sunk into a pout. “Oh, come on,” she complained. “My hand is getting tired. Don’t make me just stand here all night.”

Rapunzel let out a breathy laugh. “Sorry, my lady. You caught me off-guard is all. I’d love to dance.”

Rapunzel placed her hand on top of the other young lady’s, and the newcomer began leading the princess daintily down the steps. The blue-gowned girl’s lips curled up into a smug, triumphant smile—another expression Rapunzel could have sworn she’d seen before, but couldn’t quite place where.

The princess wanted to ask her newest dance partner if they had met, but refrained. The notion was completely absurd.

“So I’m sure you know who I am,” Rapunzel started, letting out a nervous laugh.

“Ah, yes, the beautiful debutante herself.” The blue-gowned girl made a grand sweeping motion with the hand that Rapunzel wasn’t holding. “I’ve heard a lot about you. I hope you live up to all the fanfare.”

Rapunzel laughed at the girl’s unexpected candor. “Oh, my. What sort of fanfare? Do I have any chance of doing it justice?”

The blue-gowned girl clicked her tongue. “Oh, just a rumor here and there about the shamelessly free-spirited princess who captured her life with her own hands and absolutely refuses to let it go. The ray of irrepressible sunshine who isn’t afraid to get her feet a little dirty to have fun. Show me the time of my life tonight, and maybe I’ll believe it.”

Rapunzel blushed. Had gossip of her running around the woods with Jack Overland really reached so far that other royals knew about it? It certainly wasn’t the kind of thing her parents or Hiccup would volunteer to the sort of people they wanted to impress.

“I’ll try my best!” she promised, hoping her newfound nervousness wasn’t bleeding through.

When they reached the dance floor, the music stopped for a few moments. As a new violin riff started, the blue-gowned girl stepped away and gave a small curtsy.

“Where are my manners?” she murmured. “I’m Princess Jaina Frost. I already know who you are, of course. Shall we?”

Princess Jaina stood still, hand outstretched again. As the music tempo sped up, Rapunzel stepped forward and gripped it. Jaina gripped her waist, sweeping her to the side with surprising strength. Rapunzel barely had time to slip her own free hand onto Jaina’s shoulder before the other princess was spinning them around in graceful circles, sometimes stopping to twirl Rapunzel with an ease that made it look as though she’d been doing it all her life.

“You’re so light on your feet!” Rapunzel exclaimed. “I’ve been practicing my ballroom dancing since I was little, and I can’t fly around nearly as smoothly as you can.”

“Well, you have to feel the music, really,” Jaina said nonchalantly. “Let your body match it. It’s not really something you can try to do. It’s just…a state you go into.”

“Color me impressed,” Rapunzel said. Jaina let go of her waist, letting her spin out and twist back in again. “Your form is practically flawless.”

“Oh, please.” Jaina rolled her eyes as her glass-heeled feet seemed to leap from one spot to the next with more ease than a rabbit. “I’m getting literally all of the steps wrong. No one thinks twice about it because I look like I know exactly what I’m doing.”

Rapunzel laughed, pausing to let Jaina twirl around. Her dress fluffed up in a bright cerulean cloud. “You sure had me fooled, at least,” Rapunzel admitted. “They must have some really amazing music in your kingdom, if you can synchronize with it that well.”

“Oh, the best,” Jaina said smugly. Their hands began to slide over one another’s arms and shoulders as they circled each other, changing positions. “Anyone who comes to our balls goes home with drastically lowered self-esteem. We all whip around like a storm, and they just can’t keep up.”

Something occurred to Rapunzel, and she gave the other princess a wry smile. “You know, I can’t say I’ve heard your name pop up in royal gossip, Jaina Frost. Seems odd, since you leave quite the impression.”

Jaina snorted. “What can I say? I’m scandal-free. I haven’t cheated on my fiancé or planned a coup, and what else is there for high society to speculate about?”

Something in Rapunzel abruptly wilted. “You have a fiancé?”

Jaina barked in laughter. “God, no! I’m almost as picky as I hear you are. Although the position’s currently open if you’d be interested in applying, princess.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, and Rapunzel’s face went hot.

Relax. I’m sure she’s only teasing.

Not like flirting would be completely out of the question. From what Rapunzel had seen of her, Jaina seemed like she might be a flirt—although a flirt with an unquestionably different air to her than Prince Eugene.

A flirt who had Rapunzel much more intrigued.

“Well, my parents want to secure a good alliance,” Rapunzel teased back. “What kingdom are you from, my lady?”

A brief, strange look flashed through Jaina’s eyes. It almost seemed like alarm, but it was gone too quickly to really say.

“The Northern Isles,” she said quickly.

“Oh? I haven’t heard of that one.”

Their hands slid off one another’s shoulders and hips, and they began to circle each other again with joined hands.

Jaina scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Not much to hear. It’s pretty boring. Just…cold and dark there a lot of the time. Not the sort of place that lends itself to great conversation.”

“But you are incredible dancers,” Rapunzel pointed out. “I’d think I would have heard about that.”

She pulled on Jaina’s hand, and they stepped together.

“People don’t talk about our dancing because they’re embarrassed that they’re so much worse,” Jaina said nonchalantly.

She pushed on Rapunzel’s hand, and they stepped apart.

Rapunzel couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, I hope I’m meeting your standards. Although I doubt it.”

Jaina gave her a crooked smirk. “You’re not doing awful.”

Rapunzel could only roll her eyes. “Wow, thanks.”

Jaina lifted the other princess’s hand, sliding underneath it and twirling herself around. Her dress fanned out like a whirlpool, brushing against Rapunzel’s thigh as the chandelier lights caught the ice blue of Jaina’s high heels.

“Your shoes are incredible,” Rapunzel breathed, marveling at them briefly before they disappeared beneath waves of pale chiffon. “Do they only make them in the Northern Isles?”

“Oh yeah, they’re a specialty item.” Jaina hooked an arm around Rapunzel’s waist and slid back into the rhythm of the music. “I only wear that kind of thing for big occasions, though. Not much of a shoe person—a little earth on your toes never hurt anyone.”

Rapunzel beamed. “Me too!”

Jaina smiled at her, and it was soft and easy and genuine. For maybe the first time that night, there wasn’t even a hint of mischief behind it.

Less captivating, perhaps, but warmer. More like home.

“I had a feeling you’d understand.”

Jaina moved like liquid, spinning and sliding and leaping with a fluid grace that was nothing short of entrancing. Rapunzel found herself laughing as she tried to keep up, heart soaring. She was being swept around so fast and with such delicate ease that at times, it felt like she was flying.

As they twirled around again and again, Rapunzel’s eyes strayed to the other people who whipped past, blurred black suits matched with colorful dresses. Even with her focus on Jaina, she glimpsed subtle movements as heads turned to look at them.

“Is this…okay?” she asked after a while, frowning.

Jaina frowned back. “Is what okay?”

“Us doing…all this,” Rapunzel said, gesturing to the space between them. “I feel like everyone’s staring at us. It’s not common, picking a dance partner who’s—well, you know.”

The other princess shrugged. “Well, it’s your debutante ball. You tell me if we’re going to get in trouble.”

“I don’t know,” Rapunzel admitted. “But people might talk.”

Jaina smirked. “Who cares? I say we’re doing them a favor. We’re giving them quite the story to tell, Princess Rae. Probably the most interesting thing these stuffy people have seen in months.”

Rapunzel’s cheeks grew hot at the nickname.

“I guess people will gossip no matter what,” she conceded. “Even if we only had one dance together.” At that point, they’d had closer to twenty. “I think—I think I’m worried when word gets out, people are going to be…well, be cruel, I guess. Say bad things about us.”

Jaina shrugged again. “You want to know what I think?” Rapunzel nodded.

“If anyone talks bad about us, it’s because they’re jealous we have one more gorgeous dress between us than every other pair here. Of course I’d want to find people to gripe about if I had to dance around in one of those absolutely lifeless tuxedos.”

She nodded toward one especially dreary gray suit nearby, which in fairness had even less appeal than a raincloud. The man wearing it turned to glare at both of them, and Jaina sneered at him. She turned back to Rapunzel and simpered shamelessly.

“Told you,” Jaina said smugly. “He wishes he were me.” She accentuated the statement with another twirl, and her dress fanned out like a palace fountain.

Another nearby pair sent them a hard look, and Jaina grabbed Rapunzel’s waist without warning. Rapunzel squeaked in surprise as she was dipped in the most dramatic manner possible, Jaina gazing down at her with a huge shit-eating grin.

“They can judge me all they like,” she said in a singsong voice. “But I’m the one dancing with the debutante.”

As Jaina pulled her back up, a heavy chime reverberated throughout the dance hall. Rapunzel found herself laughing.

“Another hour already? I have to say, this evening is moving a lot faster than I thought it would.”

To her surprise, she felt Jaina stiffen in her hold. “What time is it?”

“Not sure,” Rapunzel said. “Twelve, I think? Don’t worry, though, these kinds of big parties usually go until well past midnight.”

“I’m so sorry.” Jaina gave her a guilty look. “I have to go.”

“What?” She barely had time to reply before her dancing partner had yanked herself free of Rapunzel’s grip, backing up and vanishing into the throng.

“Princess Jaina!” Rapunzel shouted, diving in after her. “Wait!”