Restraint
Flynn Rider did not like being tied down, or so he thought. He later discovered, like so many other things, that he was wrong about that too. She was like that. She had a way of proving him wrong without even trying.
He was not conscious of it at the time. At the time he was in a bind. At the time, he was in a situation. He was focused on trying to loosen those weird strands so he could extricate himself from them, find his satchel and move on with his business. The business of making himself enormously rich. He had a plan and it involved a palm tree, some blessed solitude and most importantly, lots and lots of money.
Money had a way of distracting him. It enraptured him like nothing else. It took precedence over any other thought, over any other need. It was his Siren Song. It was his calling. It had been at the time, anyway. Later, he'd have another song, but right now that song was titled Money. So he wasn't thinking about the appeal of his circumstances.
Sure, he thought she was pretty. But he'd had more than his fair share of pretty women, so pretty women didn't hold his attention the way they did other men - lesser men, he thought. He had tried to charm his way out of his constraints. But even that had held no emotional component. Wooing her had been a means to an end, a means to get to his mistress, his first and only love. Money.
It was not until after they had their near death experience, his first near death experience with her. Well, he wasn't really sure if the second one counted as a "near death" experience since he had in fact died but he had also survived and one always survives a near death experience, but he was getting a head of himself. Regardless, it was not until they almost met an untimely and watery grave that he changed his mind about her.
It had been the first time he had revealed himself to someone, his true self, well, his true name anyway, since he'd adopted a new persona. He was not sure if that was the first time he trusted her. He had not expected to survive their ordeal so he threw caution to the wind and made this little revelation. He was only trying cheer her up. The fact that they had survived sort of forced his hand on the whole trust issue.
No, it wasn't until that night when they sat by the campfire that he purposely told her something about himself. She had trusted him with a closely guarded secret and he had shared something about his own life, his prior life, with her. She was so pretty, no, by then she was beautiful. He had not noticed how beautiful she was until that moment by fire when she held his gaze. Later that night she told him she liked him, his true "him" not some alter ego. It felt nice. It had made him happy.
So as he was falling asleep that night his thoughts drifted back to that morning. They drifted back to that green chair and those soften golden tresses. He had changed his mind about her hair too. Upon first inspection, he had found it a bit unnatural, a bit unnerving. Sure, he was spooked by the fact that it happened to glow. But it had also saved his life and maybe even his hand. Who knows what would have happened if that cut had gotten infected. So he was feeling appreciative and he was looking at her hair in a whole new light, ahem, so to speak.
Under these circumstances being tied down to a chair, being tied down by her, seemed rather appealing. He might even enjoy it. Thinking back on it then, in the safety of their makeshift campsite, she had been rather cute when she was making demands, threatening him with her little frying pan (the frying pan seemed less menacing now that she was unlikely to bludgeon him with it). He thought he might like the whole predicament, the hair, not the frying pan.
Maybe he might even be able to persuade her to recreate the event when he brought her back to her Tower, he thought. Except, bringing her back to that place, well, he didn't like the sound of that. Maybe it was just what she had told him about it. Thinking back on what she had said, it was starting to sound more like a prison. Now, he really didn't like the idea of taking her back. Maybe he'd talk to her about it tomorrow, after that lantern thing. His thoughts then turned to her and he smiled. She was rather pleasant, she smelled nice and she was a good listener. That was the first night he drifted off to sleep thinking of her.