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In which Jack and Rapunzel are the centrepiece of an unfinished puzzle. Yes, that's right.

A puzzle.

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Every day, the void became smaller, but it was always far too great to travel beyond. Jack stood leaning against his blue chevy impala, tossing pennies in the air in wait for a girl that would never come. He hadn't been able to keep his eyes off her since she'd started working at the Moonlight Drive-In's food joint. They hadn't always served food here—the building had only been built something but a few months ago, and Jack had yet to try out the snacks. He would have if he'd been able to walk over there but, for now, all he could do was observe from afar.

Her hair was bobbed, wavy and brown as bark. Just like the other girls, she wore a white-aproned purple skirt that fell just above her knees, and a purple-collared blouse. But what had first caught his eye was her smile, bright as the stars above, and genuine as a puppy's, obvious even from this far out. She was the most beautiful girl he'd yet to lay eyes on.

If it wasn't for the void, he'd have been over there in a jiffy. He'd have asked her to watch the latest flick with him on his hood, followed right up by the meteor shower. Surely she'd never caught well from behind that counter. A familiar clench in his chest came at the mere thought of her. Jack wanted more of her than the guy's tales of back seat bingo. He wanted to know her from the inside out, because he knew he'd love everything about her. The feeling in his gut told him that much.

The purity of her heart radiated right through the pitch black nothingness of the universe.

A group of giggling ankle biters swarmed past Jack, breaking him away from his admiring. "Hey, Jack!" Jamie said, running over to him. "Wanna play a game of hide and seek?"

Jack smiled warmly at the kid. "Not right now, Jamie. But I'll catch you later," he added when Jamie drooped with disappointment. "I got a new version of the game planned out that I think you'll like, too." And, just like that, his front-toothless smile slid right back on.

"Yay!" He exclaimed, about to run back off. He turned back before he could get too far. "Got some chalk for hopscotch?"

"I'll have to check the stocks," Jack answered, even though he knew there'd be a fresh stick in the glovebox. It was always there, fresh as a daisy. Jack sauntered over to the passenger's side of the car and poked his slender arm through the rolled window. Jamie ran off with a joyful yelp as soon as he handed it over to him. When he was lost in the sea of people and cars, Jack looked up at the sky just in time to see a sliver of darkness mold into soft, navy blue.

Every day, the void became smaller, piece by tiny little piece.

Every day, the Moonlight Drive-In healed itself from the single worldly rip until, one day, it didn't.

"Hey there, Daddy-o." A voice he'd never heard before said on the ninth day of nothingness. Jack glanced to the side to see a girl with stark white hair and eyes as blue as his leaning against his chevy."What's cookin,' good-lookin'?"

Jack glanced back at the sliver in the void, where the girl was serving a couple of movie-goers. "Nothing extraordinary." He knew it was impolite to not ask what was up with her, but Jack wasn't in the mood for flirting. He scanned the area casually for Jamie and his friends—they hadn't stopped by tonight, which made Jack wonder what shenanigans they were up to this evening. Worse yet, did they decide they no longer wanted him around?

The bleached-blonde bumped her shoulder against Jacks. When he looked at her, he saw her eyeing him and the Sliver. "Can't help but notice you been castin' an eyeball over at that brunette."

Jack jerked back. "Don't know what you mean."

Bleached-blonde groaned, rolling her eyes at Jack. "Oh, cool it. Don't play dumb with me, Jack. She's pretty."

Jack stilled. "How—?"

Bleached-blonde cocked her head to some invisible thing in the distance. "The kid told me. James, right? But you call 'im Jamie."

Jack lifted his brows. "You seem to know a whole lot."

"That's what happens when you go out and talk to people," Bleached-blonde laughed. "I'm Elsa." She held out a hand, which Jack hesitantly shook. She didn't stop staring even after they let go. "Would you believe me if I told you I met her before?"

Jack frowned at the thought. "Impossible."

Elsa looked away momentarily, shoulders drooping as she pouted. "Sweet girl. Not her type."

"Me?"

"Me. But that's beside the point. The point is I can get you over there."

Jack couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, yeah? How?" He went quiet as soon as he noticed what she was looking at.

The sliver in the void.

"You can't be serious."

Elsa smiled. "I'm the most serious girl you'll ever meet."

"That's a death's trap!" Jack exclaimed.

"Only if you let the darkness pull you in. Which—little survival tip—don't let it do that. I made that mistake once, and—" She shivered, "One of the worst things you'll ever experience. Unexplainable, to say the least."

Jack looked back at the Sliver, at the wisps of hungry black tendrils pressing against the thin path. It hadn't gotten wider in what felt like forever—would it ever go away, or were they destined to live like this forever? He looked up at the girl, then, her bright smile apparent even from this far away. It couldn't be a coincidence, his feelings for her. Jack knew he wasn't the type for love at first sight—especially when it came to girls he hadn't even met. But he couldn't ignore the pull trying to yank him toward her.

He looked up at the moon, almost not visible in the sky, and then he decisively turned back to Elsa. "Let me write a note to Jamie."

"Good choice." Elsa grinned. "Seeing you sulkin' every day was makin' everyone a bit sad. Come on, Daddy-o."

After scratching a note down and jamming it in the window with the chalk Jamie still hadn't come to fetch, Jack followed Elsa to the Sliver. She leaned in close to him as soon as their feet stopped moving.

"The thing about the Sliver is, most people try to run straight across to get in and out as soon as possible. But the trick is going slow. See, fella, it's a lot darker than it looks in there—you won't be able to see a thing but the moon when you're inside, so focus on walkin' a straight line, kay?"

Jack stared at her. "You're not coming?"

Elsa almost seemed insulted at the mere thought of that. "'Course I am. I'm goin' first, silly." She smiled mischievously. "Got my own pie face to visit. What? You didn't actually think I'd do all this just for you, did ya?"

Jack shrugged. "Can't blame a fella for thinking a stranger would do something out of the coldness of their hearts for em'."

"Ha!" Elsa moved forward, glancing at the girl through the Sliver. "And your heart's awfully warm for someone named Frost. Hers is Rapunzel, by the way."

"Ra-what?"

"Rapunzel."

Jack blinked. "What's that?"

"The name of the girl you're in love with, knuckle head."

"I'm not—"

"Oh, please," Elsa rolled her eyes again, stepping into the darkness. Her voice was nearly completely muffled now as she yelled out. "See you on the other side!"

A chill raked over Jack. He'd had a feeling about today—a good one. He hadn't been sure what it was about, exactly, and he still wasn't. Surely it wasn't this. Not this uncomfortable knot in his stomach he couldn't manage to untie.

It was a strange thing, feeling as if the world around him was pulling him back into place and tugging him forward simultaneously.

With that, Jack closed his eyes and stepped into the abyss. The first thing he noticed was how he didn't hear a loud nothingness like he thought he would; the sound of whistling wind drowned the world out just as much as the darkness did. The second thing was the sense of levitating. Though he could feel the soft ground under his feet, he could also feel how, a few inches on each side of his feet, it all disappeared, devoured by the universe, awaiting creation.

It was like holding a piece of information on his tongue; Jack was positive he knew what lay beyond, but he couldn't remember no matter how much he thought of it. Don't let it pull you in, Elsa had told him. But he couldn't help it. The thoughts of beyond devoured him whole, blowing him up with a curiosity he never had the chance to release.

Desperate, Jack opened his eyes, only to find himself lost and terrified. The moon. He looked up at what had to be the sky, finding the bright orb instantly. He'd only barely seen it through the Sliver before, so high in the sky it was clouded. I swelled a balloon of hope inside of him, spurring him on one more step, then another.

Everything was going splendid, given the circumstances, until he looked down for Rapunzel, not remembering he could no longer see anything but pitch black. A wrenching feeling warped inside of him. He swung his gaze back up, disoriented, and searched desperately for the moon, only to find it wasn't where it had just been. Jack stopped hard in his track, suffocation threatening to overtake him. The void wanted him badly. The tickling wisps wrapping themselves around his limbs over and over proved that right. And then there was the voice, so luring he was almost tempted to follow it without thought.

"Jack?"

"Jack, come to me!"

"Follow my voice."

Jack fell to his hands and knees and gripped the edges of the path. Slowly, he moved forward, noticing how the voice was become louder and louder with every step. As long as he followed the road, he'd emerge on one side of the void or the other. Jack carefully trekked on until something clamped hard on his right hand. A yell tore through him, the pinch on his fingers as he tried and failed to yank them free, a growingly unbearable pain. Without thinking, he completely let go of the road so he could tug his hand free. He knew it was already too late—it would be crushed beyond measure now. When he looked up in desperation, Jack's eyes met with the moon again, and he yelled. Over and over until the darkness and the pain finally completely disappeared. He lay on his stomach, cold asphalt underneath him. Hand free from the universe's grip.

Cars drove in out of nowhere to park, but Jack barely even noticed them. He was too busy locking eyes with a worried-looking girl crouched on roller-blades above him.

"Hey, bean," her voice was soft, gentle. Just like he'd thought. "Are you alright?" She was beautiful, up close, more than he ever would have imagined. Her eyes were a vivid green he'd never seen on anyone before. And they were glued to him. Him.

"I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw you step in there," she continued. "But you fixed it! Just like that."

"I feel stupid for askin'," Jack started, voice weaker than he intended. "But what did I fix, exactly?"

Rapunzel's smile warmed something inside of him. She reached a hand out, gently pushing his head to the side. Jack didn't have enough time to soak in the touch. Instead, he took to staring at the Drive-In.

Completely whole, with no void in sight.

Rapunzel's voice brought him back to reality. "The moon disappeared as soon as Elsa came over to see me. She told me you were in there—the white-haired boy, Jack. And then..." Her mind went elsewhere, eyes filled with wonder. "And then the void started repairing itself. It's gone! Everything is fixed!"

Jack brought his right hand up to his face, surprised to see it wasn't a crushed mess. Guardian, he was hearing people whisper. The Moonlight's guardian. It felt strange having so much attention. All he'd had before was Jamie's little gang of ankle biters. He didn't know whether he liked it or not, though that might've just been because he'd have preferred his first meeting with Rapunzel to be slightly more intimate. Her thoughts seemed to parallel with his.

"Come on," Rapunzel took his right hand in his and pulled him to his feet. She skated over to an old, yellow truck parked off to the side and opened the tail gate for them to sit on.

"Do you feel complete?" She asked, out of the blue, before shaking her head. "Sorry. It's just—I've been watching you from the Sliver for a while now, and—oh, god. That sound's creepy. I haven't been watching you. More like... noticing. You're hard not to notice."

"Is it my startling blue eyes?"

A blush crept over Rapunzel's cheeks as she laughed. "I'd say the entire package." She held out a hand to shake. "I'm Rapunzel, by the way. I didn't introduce myself."

"Jack," Jack said as he took her offered hand. He held it a beat longer than he should have, something Rapunzel didn't seem to mind, to his relief. "Don't you have food to serve?"

She tugged at her skirt, which brought Jack's gaze to her short, sun-kissed legs. He held himself back from reaching a hand out toward the sliver of bare skin, looking back up to meet her gaze instead. Beautiful, his heart yelled out. She was so, incredibly beautiful. "They can handle themselves for a few minutes without me." She reached out, suddenly, stilling Jack's heart as she cupped his face with a hand. "You feel it too, don't you? The tug. It's like I've been looking at a glass of water sitting across the room, throat dry as the sand, and now I finally have it in hand. Not that I'm comparing you to an inanimate glass of water."

Jack smiled. "Sounds like you are."

With her other hand, Rapunzel playfully shoved at his shoulder. Jack caught her wrist in his hand and pulled her closer, so they were now only inches apart. "I feel it too," he finally said. And he did. He knew the void's disappearance wasn't his doing, that was the make of some higher power, but it had filled a hole inside him that'd been empty for far too long. Hearing that he wasn't alone in that thought proved his gut hadn't been wrong. He kissed her on the cheek, then on the corner of her lips. She was the one to fully cup his jaw, to pull him into a magical kiss.

When they finally pulled away, Jack took off his jacket, wrapping it around her shoulders so she could lean back comfortably onto the truck. Her roller blades thunked onto the tailgate. "They can hold the joint up a bit longer without you, right?" Jack asked, just as the first meteor fell.

"I'm long overdue for a break," Rapunzel answered. The flutter of her fingers against his sent a spark through his veins.

And so they lay there, hand in hand, staring at the stars that never faded, at the meteors sparking through them brightly. A final piece finally set in place.

~2607 words~ 

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If you liked this prompt, don't forget to vote and comment your thoughts! :)

I swear I tried thinking up a whole lot of different ideas for this prompt to avoid writing in the perspective of a puzzle but, for the LIFE OF ME, my brain could NOT stop finding its way back to this. And I struggled a bit with the story, as you miiiight be able to tell? Sorry for the very faint Jackunzelness. The next prompt's going to have a lot more of them, promise!

Catch you on the sea in a few days' time. Arrrgh!

Was that too big of a hint?

(Posted February 25th, 2020).