Anywhere But Home

by Liliththestormgoddess

Summary: Never having received the epiphany of her stolen past, Rapunzel asks Eugene to take her away, far away, to build their lives together. But Fate is not done with them yet…

A/N: I came up with this idea while I was watching Tangled for like the fifth time. I got to thinking about how hard it had to be for Eugene to be dating the Lost Princess, after returning her to the kingdom. So I thought, what if there were no complications? The only reason for that, I figured, was if they never went back to the kingdom, if Rapunzel never discovered that she was the Lost Princess. And this story was born.

This piece was written with a certain pace and tone in mind. The chapters may seem like one-shots but each chapter is essential to the development of the plot. I will attempt to post one chapter everyday. The Queen is one of the main characters; she won't make an appearance for several chapters, but she plays a monumental role in this story. In case you were wondering why she was credited and Eugene was not. If I could, I would have more than 2 characters listed.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tangled or the song Anywhere But Home.

Prologue

Anywhere but home…that's where you're going.

~Anywhere But Home by Alannah Myles

Rapunzel stared down at the vibrant cloth gripped tightly in her hands. Hot, fat tears slid down her face and splashed the yellow sun, but she did not notice. She barely noticed as Pascal tried to console her.

That clothe meant so much to her. Was this real sadness? Why did it have to hurt so much? Is this what real pain felt like? To love and to have lost?

Her hands began to tremble. She couldn't believe that he would leave her. She thought he loved her! She loved him! Didn't she?

She wasn't sure what love was, only what she had read about in books. But this swelling of her heart, the way it skipped a beat when he looked at her…and the way it felt like it was positively breaking now told her that yes, she had fallen for him.

But he had taken off with her crown and left her to those ruffians.

Her heart, however, refused to believe the evidence before her eyes. Why, after all that time that they had spent together, would he trade her off? It just didn't make any sense, and Rapunzel refused to believe that Eugene Fitzherbert had run out on her. Flynn Rider might have, but Eugene would not.

She couldn't just sit here and cry the rest of her life. She couldn't just sit back and wonder what had happened and what she was going to do with the rest of her lowly existence. She had had a taste of freedom, of the outside world, and she had to go back. She wanted to taste it again. There was no way she was going to stay here any longer, not when she had stepped outside and saw the real world. No matter what Mother said, Rapunzel was leaving. And she was going to find Eugene and demand an explanation. There was no way she was just going to forget about everything that had happened.

Mustering her strength and courage, she wiped her eyes and stood up from the bed. She took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and went towards the window.

Suddenly, she heard a voice speak from behind her. "Just where are you going, dear?"

Rapunzel whirled around to see her mother standing in the doorway, arms crossed and eyebrows raised. Rapunzel fidgeted under her stern glare, suddenly feeling small and sad again. She hadn't wanted a confrontation with her mother because it made it that much harder to leave again. She almost stayed, but then she stole another glance out the window and the world beckoned.

"I'm going outside, Mother," she said in her calmest, most authoritative voice.

"Oh really," Mother Gothel replied amusedly.

Rapunzel nodded. "Yes, yes I am. I can't stay locked up in this tower any longer, Mother. You can't keep me here forever."

"I thought I told you the world was a dangerous, horrible place? Didn't you figure that out the last time you left, against my wishes?"

Swallowing, and trying to keep her voice steady, Rapunzel shook her head. "No Mother, you were wrong about the world. It is a wonderful, magical place. There are so many good things, and good people. Yes, I have seen the bad side too, but nothing can shadow the good. And…and I love him, Mother. I love Eugene, and I do not believe he would do anything to hurt me. I must go see him. I must," she added for emphasis.

Her mother snorted with derision. "That thief?" She walked closer to her daughter. "He is to be hung for his crimes."

Rapunzel let out a gasp, her hands flying to her mouth in shock. Hung? They were going to hang Eugene? No, they couldn't! She had to go see him!

Her mother laid a hand on her shoulder. "There, there, my dear. Don't worry. All is as it should be."

Her daughter swiped at the cold, consoling hand. "No!" she cried defiantly, surprising both of them with her fierceness. "No," she said again, taking a step away from her mother. "No, this is wrong. They can't hang him. I have to find him!" Her green eyes grew wide at the thought of losing him, and that's when she knew, knew for sure, that she loved him.

"No, Rapunzel," her mother growled, catching her wrist before her daughter could leap out the window. "You are not leaving this tower!"

Rapunzel struggled against the grip. Panic for Eugene had begun to set in, and she was like a frightened animal fighting for her life. "No! You can't keep me here forever! I won't let you use me and my hair any longer!"

For during her journey in the world, she had soon realized that living in a tower for eighteen years was not a normal, loving thing to do for one's children. And she was tired of always using her healing powers to make her mother look younger, while her mother never let her step foot outside the tower. Yes, a girl with magic hair might invite the wrong sort of crowd, but she had seen more good than bad outside these walls, and if Eugene was there to protect her…

With that desperate thought, Rapunzel broke hold of her mother's grip, only to stumble backwards into the mirror. Girl and mirror crashed spectacularly into the floor, and shards of mirror scattered everyway. Pain erupted in Rapunzel's hands and knees, and looking down, she saw that the mirror had sliced open her hands. Before she could do anything else, however, a dark shadow suddenly loomed over her.

As Eugene clung to Max's neck, only one name dominated his thoughts: Rapunzel. His heart beat faster thinking about her, and he hoped to all the gods that she would be all right and that he wouldn't be too late.

His brief talk with the Stabbington brothers had left him sweating nervously. The woman? Who was that? Something had lodged itself in his stomach at the thought that it might be Blondie's creepy overprotective mother.

Finally arriving at the tower, he called up to Rapunzel. Getting no response, he quickly began to climb. He was getting in there to see her, and nothing and no one was going to stop him. Suddenly, locks of blonde hair tumbled out the window, and grinning, he made his way up.

He barely had time to register the bizarre scene in front of him; Rapunzel chained to the floor, before a sharp and horrible pain blossomed in his side.

Gasping and suddenly seeing stars, his knees buckled out from beneath him and he fell to the floor, clutching his side. His head rang and all he heard was a rushing in his ears. Heart pounding, he realized that his hands pressed to his side were wet with something hot and sticky. He looked down, his vision swimming in and out of focus, and saw red.

Blood. It was blood. Someone had stabbed him.

Where was Rapunzel?

Voices broke through the incessant ringing in his ears for a moment, and he heard two women arguing. One was Rapunzel, and she was saying that if she healed him, she would go without argument.

Eugene realized the other woman must be her mother, and he suddenly knew that if Rapunzel healed him, then she was going to just go and live in another tower for the rest of her life. He couldn't let that happen.

So, he did the only thing he could think of: he cut off her hair.

His last few moments were blurry and loud. He heard the old woman shrieking, and then nothing at all. He assumed she was gone and good riddance to her. Then Rapunzel was next to him, calling his name.

He tried opening his eyes, but all he saw was a blur of colours. His head felt light and he could hardly move any of his muscles. He literally felt his life slipping away with each beat of his heart. Ironic, he thought, that with each beat he was being kept alive but was slowly killing himself as his blood drained.

A soft touch on his face brought his focus back to the girl with him.

His heart ached that she had to see him like this; that she had to witness his death. He hadn't wanted it to end like this, but if this is what it took for her to remain free…why, he would do it over ten times.

He heard her crying, and he wanted to console her. But what could he say? That it would be all right? Well, it wouldn't. Even he knew that. No, he wanted to express his love for her. He wanted to at least let her know that she had been loved and that he hadn't run off on her. He had to tell her.

"You were my new dream," he whispered with the last of his strength. He heard Rapunzel reply, but the sound was muddied. He couldn't distinguish between words and he was getting tired, so tired. All his limbs felt light, and with one last beat of his heart, he felt the last of his life slip away and he followed death on it's coattails…

Something wasn't right. He hurt. A lot. Wasn't Heaven supposed to take all his pain away? He was dead, wasn't he?

Someone was touching him, calling his name. Slowly, he opened his eyes to see a pair of big green eyes watching him. He was surprised at how clear his vision was. "Rapunzel?" he croaked.

She gasped. "Eugene!" and tackled him in a hug.

Still bewildered at what had just happened, he hugged her back, relishing in the moment. He decided that he would figure out what happened later and just savour the moment because, well, he was alive.

And Rapunzel, he realized, was a brunette.

After several long moments locked in a passionate embrace, Eugene finally got the story out of Rapunzel. It seemed that her mother had been using her to stay alive with her magic hair and didn't want her leaving the tower to see Eugene. But once the hair was cut, she had rapidly aged and met a fatal end. She told Eugene that he had died but that her tears held the last remnants of her magic and he was brought back from the dead.

"If you healed me, Blondie, why do I feel like I just got trampled by Max?" he joked half-heartedly.

She frowned. "I don't know," she said seriously. "Maybe because you died? It's a lot more serious than just a cut."

He nodded. "I suppose." Then, smiling widely, pulled Rapunzel back into a hug. He just needed to feel her there with him. Twice today he'd thought he'd never see her again. "Oh, Rapunzel," he said. "I thought I would never see you again."

She snuggled in closer into the embrace. "I didn't think you had left me, not really."

"I'm sorry," he whispered, planting a kiss on the top of her head. "For making you think that I had left."

"I'm glad you're here," she said sincerely.

Noticing the sun was starting to set, she laid her hands on his chest and raised her head to look him in the eye. "Eugene," she said. "Take me away from here. Please. There's nothing left for me here."

Tears shimmered in her eyes and he felt his heart break from seeing her in pain. "Anything for you," he replied.

And like the severing of Rapunzel's blonde locks, she severed the last ties to her old life.

And the two left the tower behind, never to return.