#fics16

It was Greece. But gods were not revered as they once were. Humans had become wary of their presence and angered at all the changes the world suffered from their selfish behaviour.

Because of that, gods had stopped visiting the human world as much as posible, of fear of losing the humans weak loyalty and worship. Been forgotten terrified them, so they decided to leave the humans alone.

Well, at least, most of them. There were some, a few to be honest, who simply could not abbandon the mortal world wich they found so unberably interesting. It pulled at their heart strings, like a magnet, impossible to resist.

But, in order to visit without beeing reconized, those minor gods obteined a certain cloacking power, that allowed them to blend in with humans.

In doing that, they not only blended with mortals, but also had children with them. These childs were called demigods and, as well as their progenitors, were hated deeply for possesing immortal blood in their veins.

Among those cursed children was a girl with long golden hair, named Rapunzel. Her mother, Eos, goddess of dawn and light and Apollo had blessed her with a incredible healing power. Until the age of six she lived happly with her mother and father. That is, until the villagers found out about her mother’s secret and hunted her down.

Her father was executed and her mother fled from the land, leaving Rapunzel to fend by herself.

In her journey she met children like her, who were also on the run from a terrible organization wich terminated demigods mercilessly.

Now at fourteen years old, she and her two friends, Merida and Hiccup, had finnaly found a place to live peacefully, having lost their persecuters two years ago.

Athenas.

She smiled absently minded, not noticing the aproaching figure. His shadow was her alarm, but before she could turn, two cold hands, despite the hot day, covered her eyes, a voice she knew all too well spoke too close to her ear.

“Such a pretty lady walking alone. You should be more carefull.” Rapunzel spun around, hitting the boy playfully on the chest and sticking out her tongue.

“Stop it Jack. My heart is racing like crazy.” She spoke, putting a hand over her chest. She could feel his smile even without looking up. “Whats so funny..”

“I guess i should be proud…”He whispered to himself, turning away from her. “Making your heart race is something i really…”

“Quit your blabering Overland!” A red head appaered out of nowere and smacked the boy on the head.

Hiccup came laughing behind her, carrying their food supplies. When she saw the bags, her eyes became lifeless, the happiness she had been feeling washed away. She remembered suddenly the thing she had been trying to push away, the sad truth of their situation.

They had been able to evade the organization up until now, going so far as living peacefully for two years. She tought they could finnaly settle down in one place. But the fantasy could not last forever.

The worst of it all was Jack. They… They would have to leave Jack behind. Somehow, that hurt more than going back to running away. Not that he would go with them if he knew the truth.

Despite the years that had gone by, the hated towards demigods remained still, like a mist of darkness they could never truly escape.

Many times, she considered telling the prankster boy the truth. Late night on the orfanage. Early in the morning when they were getting water from the well. Even now, she wanted nothing more than to tell him everything. But she knew, the moment he came to know what they really were, their friendship would be ruined.  And that was something she simply couldn’t bear.

She remembered when they had first met, on the edge of the forest. Mérida and Hiccup had gone to the city to “gather” food and tools and let Rapunzel guarding their campsite. But they were taking so long, so she decided to go take a peak, to see IF they were already coming back.

She had been hiding behind a trunk very still, for no more than Five minutes, when she heard his voice.

“Hey, its not safe to be on the forest at this hour.” She felt a shiver ran down her spine, and, inspite all her senses telling her to run, her curiosity got the Best of her, and her eyes scanned the trees above frantically.

“Who are you?”  She asked, loud, in what she hoped was a intimidating voice. A chuckle followed her words and she felt her face growing hot and red. She  turned to go back, but then he spoke again.

“No, wait!” A loud tump and the sound of falling leaves and then a figure approaching. She preppared herself to run. But, when the setting Sun shone on his pale face, her heart no longer felt uneasy. Well, if she was going to be completly honest, the moment she heard his laugh, the danger she initially felt was gone. “Im sorry. I shouldn’t have laughed. Im Jack, by the way.”

He walked closer and she took a step back. He smiled at her and, even tought her nerves were startled, she could not help the smile that crept on her face.

“Im, im Rapunzel.”

After that, Hiccup and Merida came back, and, after a lot of explanation and having to stop the other girl from hitting him, they found out about the orphanage and thats how they started their new lives.

Jack was a sharp boy. The bags did not go unnoticed, not the look Rapunzel gave them, nor the uneasy glances Merida and Hiccup kept giving to both of them.

“Punzie… Why are you guys gathering suplies? “ His tone was carefull, but his eyes were slightly wide, his eyebrows nitted together.

“Erm, you see…” The blonde started grabbing hold of her tunic and twisting it. “W-We were going to, um, leave the city for a while.”

“What? Why?!” He took a step closer to her. Seeing she wouldn’t respond, he continued. “Then Let me go with you guys. I can…”

“No!” She shouted, a little too loud. Some people glanced at their direction. Hiccup decided to intervine, before things got even more complicated.

“Jack, you can’t come with us. We couldn’t ask you to leave the place where you were born and lived your entire life.

Rapunzel glanced up just to regret it immediately. Jack had a hurt look on his face, shining in his eyes that made her heart feel like it was beeing crushed.

Quickly tough his expression changed. Now anger melted with the hurt and he fisted both hands.

“So what? Its not like i have anything left in here.” He spat, looking away from his best friends. When he finnaly tought he had found people that cared about him, a family he had chosen, that had chosen him, they were leaving him. Leaving him behind Just like his parents. The tears started to fload his eyes and he groaned, turning around and running away, not before casting a look that would haunt Rapunzels dreams for countless nights. “Fine. Leave then. I dont care.”

Rapunzel made a move to touch him, but he slapped her hand away. “Oy, Overland…” Merida said warningly.

“Shut up. Didn’t you guys want to leave? What are you waiting for dammit?! Go away!” This time he ran, faster than any of them could ever hope to catch up to. His tears dried with the hot wind, the trembling of his shoulders going unnoticed in the distance.

“Punzie…” Merida approached her friend, who had crouched down and was clutching her arms tightly, tears running silently.  All the daughter of Aries could do was pat her softly as the blonde regained her compusere.

Later, when they were back at the orphanage, preparing to sleep to what would be their last night there, Merida seated on her bed and looked the smaller girl right in the eyes.“You Love him, dont you?”

At those words, another flod of memories took over her, and she found herself a few moths before, sitting with Jack on the roof, sharing some fruit she had never eaten before while they were on the run.

“This is delicious!” She said, in a loud whisper, carefull not to wake up the other children.

Jack merely smiled smugly. On the inside tough, his pride was swelling up to the pont he tought it would explode.

After a while, he broke the confortable silence.

“Hey, Punzie…” She looked at him, a curious look on her big Green eyes. “ You, i mean, i… I need to tell you something.”

Inwardly, the girl felt her chest tighten with aticipation. She stopped in mid bite, the juicy fruit dripping slowly down her chin. Jack seemed to lose focus at that moment, and before she could clean it up with her hand, the boy had leaned in, and, uncerimounsly, started to lick the juicy of her chin and cheek.

“J-Jack!” Rapunzel felt her face explode beneath his tongue. “W-Whaa… ?” But before she finnished her sentence, if she ever could in the state her nerves were, his eyes looked deep at hers, and he leaned in once again, his cold lips resting on her overheated ones.

When he pulled away, and both had open their eyes, Jack smiled again.

“Im in love with you.” His voice was low, and the feintest red covered his cheeks.

Rapunzel, whose face was redder than a tomato, pulled him close and hid her face on his neck. She took so long to answer, the boy was already giving up when she pushed him slightly and kissed his nose swiftly~, going back to rest her head on the croack of his neck. When she spoke, her voice muffled by his skin, goosebumps covered his entire body. “Me too”

Rapunzel mearly nodded, supressing a sob. Jack hadn’t come back yet. “You know, we could just tell him… Hiccup and i are fine with it. To be honest, we don’t even know if he hates demigods that much…

“No.” The red head with unruly hair was surprised by the deciveness from her tone. “He doesnt hate demigods. He absolutely despises the Greek Gods. I asked him one night, and, you should have seen how his face contorted with contempt when he spoke about the gods having children with mortals, he…” The blonde shock her head, hiding her face on her friends shoulder. “I preffer for him to not hate us more than he already does…”

With that, Merida sighed and gave up. Rapunzel’s decision wasn’t wrong. They went to sleep, trying not to be terrified of the journey ahead of them.

:::::

The kids of the orphanage were suddenly woken up by a series of screams and blows against the walls. Then what seemed to be a lot of struggling.

Jack had Just returned from the forest were he had been cooling off when he heard it. He was about to open the door when a voice he knew all too well spoke. After all, it was the voice that made his heart jump like na insane creature inside his chest.

“Let them go!” Rapunzel’s scream ringed trough his ears and suddenly, without even realising it, he was inside, not really remebering to have opened the door.

The scene waiting for him inside made all his muscles twitch, paralising his body.

Merida was on the ground, face beeing squashed against the floor. Her eyes were open, looking at an apparently unconcious Hiccup, beeing held by his wrists. Blood was everywhere. His friends clothes, face, hands, dripping on the floor, splatered in the walls. And there was Rapunzel. Punzie. A dagger burried in her right arm, hair pulled back, her face swollen. Anger like he had never felt before boiled trought his bones.

But, before he could do anything, the woman in the fancy purple clothing spoke, sneering as she did.

“We finnaly found you little vermem. Parasytes of this world, you dammed god cubs. How long did you think you rotten kids would be able to escape the organization?”

Rapunzel turned her head to look at the woman in the face and her eyes found Jack’s. her expression of deffiance soon broke into a consuming desperation. Jacks brain tried to process what he’d Just heard. God cub… Did she meant… ..

“Jack, im sorry!” It was Rapunzel. Her eyes overflowing, the tears carving a pat on her blood stained face. “I am so sorry.” She was overlaping the words, hopelessly trying to explain herself. “Thats why we were leaving. I didn’t want you to know what we are. What i am. I didnt want to ruin our friendship!”

Jack was dunbfolded. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

“Ah, so you made a friend, how cute.” The woman with bush black curls slaped Rapunzel, laughing cruelly. “Little demon kids like you cannot have friends.”

Right then, something inside Jack snaped. His hands were shaking violently and the rage no longer boiled, but froze his entire beeing. The last thing he remembered, before his vision blackining was his broken scream “I WONT LET YOU HURT MY FRIENDS!”

:::::

It happened so fast, and yet some parts of it seemed to ble in slow motion. Jack shoting ice daggers from his body, half of his hair glowing white. The men holding Merida and Hiccup were hit and died in the spot. The woman screeched and ran out of the house, not without beeing hit by a big ice spear in her leg.

When it all ended the orphanage was covered in light snow, falling soothingly over their heads.

Rapunzel began healing her friends at once. When she was finnishing with Merida the owners of the orphanage house came, shaking in their feet, demanding that they left immediatley.

The four kids grabed the few belongings they had and headed for the Forest, their hearts pounding with excitement and fear.

Jack suddenly halted in the entrance of the woods, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

“I guess i owe you guys na appology. Im sorry for not telling i was also a demigod. Its Just… my father, Boreas, left my mom, sister and i right when the organization was coming. In the chaos, my mother and sister died and i-i Just…”

He was taken a back when a sudden crushing weight collided with his chest. Rapunzel hugged him tightly. “Its okay now Jack. You have us.”