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Fandom: Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons (crossover fandom)
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: Hiccup Haddock III, Jack Frost, Princess Merida, Princess Rapunzel
Pairing(s): None
Warning(s): mentions of kidnapping, death, and trauma - nothing graphic
Summary: Sometimes, nothing can make it stop hurting. But having three friends who are just as messed up as you can help. [Modern AU with them all as high school classmates, hurt/comfort and friendship-focused. Oneshot.]
AO3 link here.
They didn't become friends because they were all messed up, but sometimes Rapunzel wondered if that was how they'd become best friends.
Rapunzel had the dubious honor of being the only person she knew who'd gone through an experience like hers. Sure, there were support groups online, but no one she knew well, no one she saw every day. Her parents - her real parents, she sometimes had to remind herself - did everything they could to help. Her therapist was great. Meditation helped, a little.
Hiccup, Merida, and Jack had been the real lifesavers, though.
When it came time to face Gothel down in court, Merida had walked into the courthouse with Rapunzel, clutching her hand and glaring at any reporters who looked like they might get too close. Merida and the guys sat as close as they could to Rapunzel and her family once they were in the actual courtroom. Jack had leaned into whisper just as the judge entered: "You got this." Hiccup had reached to touch her arm, giving her a gentle squeeze as the bailiff called them to rise.
Even after the sentencing was over and done with, the anxiety and nightmares persisted. Rapunzel is still getting used to the freedom of her new life, of a post-Gothel world.
Jack coaches her through her first panic attack, while Merida walks her home every single time Rapunzel comes over, no matter how late it is, and Hiccup comes to her rescue when she thinks she sees Gothel in a Target and can't bring herself to leave the dressing room. And as the good days start to outweigh the bad, her friends are there for that, too. For her first art show, for when she gets straight A's, when she dares try out for the school play, when she makes her starring debut as a tree. They're there, so thrilled for her that she can't believe she ever thought this kind of life was beyond her reach.
It's true her best friends haven't gone through what she's gone through. But they love her so much, so fiercely, and are so steadfast and loyal that Rapunzel starts to think that maybe she doesn't need total understanding, as long as she has people who are willing to stick by her even when they can't understand.
Physical therapy sucks. This is the refrain of the texts Hiccup bombards his friends with multiple times a week. This is usually met with sympathetic heart emojis, gifs cheering him on, and offers to beat his doctor up. (Okay. That last one's mostly Mer.)
Physical therapy sucks, because that's easier to say with a laugh and a sardonic smile than losing one of your legs sucks.
Physical therapy sucks, because there is no funny gif to send in response to if one more person looks at me like they feel sorry for me, I'll scream.
Physical therapy sucks, because Hiccup doesn't even know how to explain how it feels to lose a part of him, a part of him he knows isn't strictly essential, but still, he literally lost a part of himself and yes, modern medicine is a wonder, and yes, the prosthetic fits great, he still doesn't know how he's managing to just go to school and do homework and hang out with his girlfriend and help his dad out around the shop when he still hasn't reckoned with that yet.
After the accident, the first people Hiccup saw after waking up in the emergency room were Astrid and his father, but it wasn't until his friends were allowed in to see him that he let himself start to cry, the events of the night before suddenly too much to bear quietly. Jack, Merida, and Rapunzel sat at his bedside for hours, bringing him everything from snacks to missed assignments to comic books from home. Merida brought her laptop and watched a movie he knew for a fact she hated, but he liked it and he'd just had a nasty surgery, so she watched it and only made fun of the special effects once. Jack told him everything he missed while away from school, and, once, when they were alone, said, "I don't know what we'd have done without you, Hiccup." Rapunzel brought him a new handmade card every time she came by, and snuck in Pascal once right under the nurses' noses, just to cheer him up.
One was always holding onto him, as if trying to prove to themselves that this wasn't a dream, that he truly had survived the wreck that should've killed him.
He survived, but he's still getting used to it. No one can make that go any faster - that's what his therapist (his brain therapist, not his physical therapist) says, anyway. Nothing can make Hiccup used to the new reality but time and patience.
As he waits to adjust, for things to go back to normal, time seems to slow to a crawl. Except for when Hiccup is in the company of the three friends who know him best.
Jack's going to miss her forever.
Talking about it isn't really an option, which is fine, because it's pointless. Of course he'll always miss her. That's a given. Just like it's a given that the world became less beautiful, that fun things became less fun. He does his best; tries to smile through it and laugh and assure people that really, he's okay. But people don't always buy it, and that's a real problem.
Whenever Jack mentions his sister, people always give him that look, that you must miss her look. Jack doesn't usually dignify that look with a response. He just keeps joking.
Except for once, when he takes his friends to the lake where it happened.
It's springtime, not like when his sister died, and they're sitting on the grass several feet away. Getting any closer feels too much like tempting fate to Jack. Maybe that's stupid, but he doesn't care. He can't risk losing anyone else. They didn't know him when it happened. Hiccup had been his first new friend after the funeral, when Jack had started at his new school, determined to push through and graduate and leave town as soon as possible. But Hiccup had won him over, and then he'd met the girls, and suddenly, he wasn't alone. Suddenly, he has people who never knew his sister, but they know of her. They know what happened to him.
It feels important, somehow, to tell them what happened to him, in his own words.
None of them interrupt when he tells the story. He talks for almost a full half hour, explaining the snowy day, the ice, the cracks, the splash, the screaming. The hospital. The funeral. The hospital again. Jack tells details he never intended to tell anyone, not even his parents. Especially not his parents.
When his voice finally falters and his words run dry, none of them speak. Rapunzel, eyes damp, is the first to move, reaching for his hand. Hiccup takes the other one, and Merida, who Jack has never seen this close to tears before, leans against his shoulder and sinks her weight onto him. The four of them sit there, holding each other and watching the lake, holding some sort of vigil they never planned.
Jack, who normally responds to every show of sympathy with a smile, doesn't have it in him to force it this time, and maybe that's because right now, he doesn't have to.
Sometimes, Merida feels guilty for ever needing them.
Her parents love her and do the best they can do. Her house is warm and safe. Food's always plenty, she's never seriously wanted for anything, except maybe parents that understand her, and isn't that what every whiny teenager on the planet wants? She's never lost a family member or a limb or what she thought of as her life.
So why does she feel like there's a knot in her stomach half the time? Why does she sometimes want to scream and cry because no matter what she says or does, her mother won't listen?
Why does Rapunzel listen to Merida complain about her mother and nod sympathetically and say, "She's not being fair," as if Merida has any right to complain?
Why does Hiccup tag along with her to the archery range and watch as Merida gets her rage out, and then crack a dumb joke just to make her feel better?
Why does Jack lend her his coat after Merida, in a fit of petulant frustration, rips the frilly, restrictive sleeves off a dress her mother picked for her, completely ignoring Merida's request to wear pants to this event?
Merida doesn't know why they listen, why they continue to be patient, why they haven't pointed out that they all have it so much worse. But her friends are always there to listen, always there to assure her that she isn't a terrible person, that it's okay if she doesn't have herself figured out yet, that one day, things with her mother will improve.
Optimism hasn't always come naturally to Merida, but when things are especially bad, she tells herself, if the best three people she knows are certain that she's okay, then maybe she's okay.
There are times when they laugh or tease or roll their eyes in response to declarations of love from the others. If you tell Merida you love her, you can expect a punch in the arm. Rapunzel will giggle, "Oh, stop," and Hiccup will look away with a self-effacing roll of his eyes and a, "Yeah, yeah." Jack might go Han Solo - "I know" - or just give you a sly wink. The love is sincere, but the responses can't be. That's too real, too vulnerable, for four kids who have too many open wounds as it is.
But things are different at 3 AM, when three phones in three different bedrooms across town light up. Rapunzel, sending a message, because they all know that when it's too much, when it's too serious, when it's too real to handle on their own, they can reach out to the others, any time of night. Sometimes one will ask if someone is awake and can slip outside to call them, or just stay on the line and breathe. Sometimes someone will need distraction - memes and fanfic and cute cat photos galore.
But sometimes, like now, they just need to talk.
RAPUNZEL: hey sorry it's so late. everythings ok just woke up from a nightmare about You Know Damn Well. felt better after i drank some water and played with pascal a little (he was not happy to be woken up!!! LOL) but i just wanted to say that you guys were the only reason i got through it when everything happened last spring. i'm gonna try to get back to sleep now but i just wanted to say i love you guys <3
Merida is the first to see the message - always a light sleeper - and she smiles, responding with a heart react and ily2 before rolling back over. Hiccup is next, echoing Merida's heart and sending a private message to Rapunzel: if you need to talk, i'm up. Then, Jack, who simply replies: say hi to pascal when he sees the message at 7 AM the next day. And Rapunzel feels better, even if she knows she may well have nightmares again the next night, or the night after that.
None of them are equipped to handle the ghosts of Rapunzel's past - none of them are equipped to handle the ghosts of any of their pasts.
But if friends cannot chase the ghosts away permanently, they can certainly help you find the light.