"But you can't make me do this, Mum!" Merida clenched her fists together. "You just can't make me do this!" She stamped her foot.

Her mother sighed, placing her fingers on her forehead. "Look, Merida, I understand that this is not necessarily agreeable. I'm not as ignorant of how you feel as you think."

Merida rolled her eyes. "Mum, you knew that Rapunzel and I were going out tonight. I can't just call her and say that we need to cancel our plans; how is that curtious, Mum? It was to a fancy restaurant and everything." Okay, that was a stretch of the truth; the cheeseburger place out by the movie theater was probably not the classiest place for Merida to take her girlfriend out (no matter how good the fries were).

If anything would get to her mother, it would have to be something like that.

Her mother clenched her briefcase tighter. Her eyes were closed, and she had turned slightly from Merida. "I swear that I didn't know that this would happen. I promise that I'll make this up to you once I get back from work." She smirked. "How about I cover your next night out with Rapunzel?"

Merida grinned. "Now that's more like it."

Elinor smiled. "You really don't know how important that this is for me. If anything happens, make sure to call me; I know that your brothers can be a handful."

Merida chuckled. "They're a bit more than that, Mum."

She leaned forward and quickly kissed Merida's cheek. "If anyone can care for them, then they are you."

She exited from the house's front door, and Merida watched her car leave. Only when the last of it's light had faded away did she turn away from the large home windows.

"Hey, you little rascals, I have news for you!" Merida yelled; she hoped that she wouldn't have to do that again. If she did, she'd probably end up with the whole neighborhood hearing her.

The sound of her brothers' footsteps echoed from upstairs, the sound only intensifying as they ran down the stairs. As always, the red head trio was right next to each other; rarely did Merida ever see them apart.

"Mum is having me look after you tonight. Don't worry, I have some ideas for what we can do tonight."

Her brothers cheered.

She got down on her knees, getting herself to where she was eye level with them. "You guys just have to promise me to be careful and not break anything."

Everything went silent.

"If you do," Merida said, looking away from them. "Then we'll, we'll..."

There was a sudden knock at the door.

"Then we'll go out for doughnuts! Doesn't that sound great?" As soon as the words were said, Merida was up and running to the door. She didn't bother to check for who it was, just opened the door.

Her heart skipped a beat. "Oh, hello, Rapunzel." She put her hands in her red hair, then uselessly tried to make it look neat.

Rapunzel was dressed quite well, in a dark purple top with yellow trimming and dark blue jeans. Her short brown hair was well styled, and her makeup suited her perfectly.

Merida was still in her sweaty track uniform from earlier.

"I didn't know that you would drop by so early."

Rapunzel bit her lip. "Merida, is there a problem? Did I do something wrong?"

"What? No, no, no!" Merida sighed. "The thing is, I just didn't get the chance to text you that I can't make it to tonight's date. My mother had to go back to her work because of an emergency, and that left me to babysit my brothers. I am so, so sorry."

"Oh," Rapunzel said, her eyes softening. "It's fine."

Her brothers came over to the door, looking up at Rapunzel with wide eyes.

"Merida, do you two kiss?" Haymitch asked.

"What makes you ask that?"

Rapunzel giggled.

"Well, I was worried that if you did then you would get the cooties."

All three of the boys stiffened, looks of horror passing through their eyes.

"Oh yes we do," Rapunzel said, stepping forward into the house. "And now we're going to infect you!" She reached forward, her hands like claws.

The boys all shrieked and ran away.

Merida laughed. "Well, that's a way to scare them."

"Mind if I stay?"

"Huh?"

"I know how your brothers can be, Merida. She reached forward, holding her hand out to the other girl. "I'll stay and help."

Merida took her hand. "You really will?"

Rapunzel nodded. "It's the least that I could possibly do." She grinned. "Besides, I heard something while I was outside about doughnuts being involved."