Jarida Drabbles

Spirit

"Looking good, Princess."

Merida turned around, her red curls bouncing around her face. "It's a Christmas meal, and Punz and Tooth have taken such pains to arrange this. I had to contribute, didn't I?"

"By looking fancy?"

Merida gave him a challenging look. "It's not that extraordinary."

"Don't try to fool me. You've put lipstick on."

Merida pursed her red lips. "Maybe it's for someone special."

Jack smiled sweetly. "You know that I know that you would stick out your tongue at me if you didn't have that lipstick?"

Merida stretched her tongue out. Jack laughed out loud.

"You didn't come with Flynn or Hiccup, did you?" he asked, raising his eyebrow.

Merida wrinkled her nose. "No…"

A mischievous smile crept upon his face. "Good…"

And with a smooth gesture, he stepped forward, pinning her between his body and the wall, and kissed her passionately. He felt her smile against his lips, and then she kissed him back, matching his fervour with the same intensity.

They broke apart when they heard footsteps down the hall. Only seconds later, Hiccup and Flynn, chatting, walked in.

"Your lipstick is smeared." Hiccup greeted Merida.

Jack, who knew pretty exactly what or rather who had done, that, reacted fast enough. He faked a sneeze and covered his mouth with his sleeve, wiping the red stains on his mouth away. He met his girl's glance. To his surprise, she seemed impressed.

"Bless you." Flynn commented, but he turned his attention back to Merida. "Traces of your new secret boyfriend, hmm?"

Jack nearly choked on his own saliva.

"You okay, man?" Hiccup looked concerned. "Got the flu'?"

"Everything's alright. Just surprised I've never heard of this secret boyfriend." Merida rolled her eyes and knocked on the door of Rapunzel's and Toothiana's apartment.

Tooth opened nearly immediately. "Heeey!"

"Hi!" They hugged briefly. "Sorry, I need to refresh my lipstick."

Toothiana looked after her as she walked to the bathroom. "Boys, what did you do that she's already pissed?"

"Nothing in particular." Jack smiled to himself as he walked in.

"Yeah, we were just talking about her new boyfriend." Flynn said mockingly.

"Did you finally get a name out of her?" Rapunzel came out of the kitchen, balancing full plates on her hands.

"Nope, no success." Hiccup, who'd entered the apartment last, looked around. "Did you rob Santa Claus's workshop?"

The apartment looked fancy, stuffed with every single cliché ever brought in contact with Christmas.

"We're just spreading the Christmas spirit!" Tooth exclaimed.

"If it helps, I'm already feeling very Christmas-y." Flynn sunk onto a chair, a string of tinsel wrapped around his fingers.

Merida joined them, sitting down vis-à-vis of Jack.

Of course, he immediately noticed something. "Where's the lipstick? I liked it."

"I bet you did." Merida grumbled.

Jack smirked.

"I didn't get it." Hiccup let his questioning glance wander from Merida to Jack.

"Inside joke." they answered in unison. Both of them surprised, their eyes interlocked for a second, and an amused smile appeared on Merida's lips.

Rapunzel put down the last plate. "So, there it is. Enjoy the meal!"

"You did the cooking?" Hiccup asked, glancing suspiciously over to Toothiana next to him, whose cooking skills were highly feared.

"Yes, it's all mine. Tooth did the decoration."

"Well, that explains a lot." Flynn murmured – he had already spread tinsel all over his plate.

"Child." Toothiana huffed and rolled her eyes playfully.

"Come on, you won't start fighting! It's Christmas, guys!" Jack interrupted.

"Apropos – why didn't you go celebrate with your boyfriend, Merida? You should spend Christmas with the people you love. You know we wouldn't have a problem with it." Toothiana meant.

"You could've brought him." Hiccup suggested.

Merida felt awkward. "You know, he's kind of…shy. I don't think he's up to meeting everyone yet."

"I don't think he's up to it either." Jack supported her.

Hiccup looked at him blankly. "I thought you didn't know about him."

"Yeah, I'd forgotten that she'd told me about him. Two weeks ago or something." Jack bluffed it out.

"I don't care!" Rapunzel yelped "I want to meet this guy who's the best sex she's ever had!"

Jack, who'd been concentrating on the food, looked up. A crooked smirk slowly crept upon his lips, and he chuckled lowly.

"Really? That's what you heard?" he demanded "You said that?" He turned to Merida, who was decent enough to blush slightly.

"I might've…" she admitted, embarrassment written all over her face.

Jack snorted with laughter. He didn't care that everybody was looking at him as if he'd gone crazy.

Hiccup justifiably asked: "Why is that funny?"

"Because I am very happy for him." He took a deep breath and raised an eyebrow at Merida. "And you, you lucky dog!" And he burst out in laughter again.

While Merida tried to dagger him with glances, the others just characterized him as nuts for the moment.

The conversation went on, and Merida's boyfriend wasn't mentioned anymore, until…

"I'll bring my plate to the kitchen." Merida announced after the meal. She stood up and went on, while Flynn kept looking for something on the table.

"Someone seen the potatoes?" he asked finally.

"Yeah, we've all seen them disappearing in your throat." Hiccup meant sarcastically.

"There are some left on the stove." Rapunzel comforted the disappointed Flynn.

"Gonna fetch them for you." Jack was already on his way, walking towards the kitchen, but his eyes were still on Flynn. And so it wasn't a big surprise that he and Merida bumped together in the doorframe.

"Sorry." Jack murmured and touched quickly her sleeve.

"HA!" Toothiana suddenly cried out.

"What's wrong?" Merida asked.

"You two walked totally into my trap!" She pointed to a spot over their heads.

"What do you – oh." Jack had looked up. "Mistletoe. Seriously?"

"Dead serious." Rapunzel stated.

"A kiss! A kiss! A kiss! A kiss!" Tooth, Flynn, Hiccup and Rapunzel were already chanting.

Jack lowered his head to face Merida. Her arrant smile nearly made him back up. But before he could do so, she had already taken hold of the front of his shirt, dragged him close and crushed their lips together.

Almost reflexive, he put a hand on her neck and pulled her closer. For the fragment of a second, he returned the kiss, but she broke it, smiling sassily.

Merida winked at him, licked provocatively her upper lip and went on to sit again. Jack only managed to stare at her, while a small voice in his head said: Yes, you're definitely in love.

Rapunzel finally broke the stunned silence: "That's what I call the right spirit!"