I've been wanting to write a Tangled one-shot for FOREVER and then here I am, looking at some Tangled fanart and I get this magnificent idea. Hope you like! (Listen to "Hear You Me" by Jimmy Eat World if you want 'cause it also inspired this.)
Disclaimer: I do not own Tangled; it is © Disney.
Why Does the Caged Bird Sing?
A cage.
Chains.
Gray.
The grass used to be green and the air used to be sweet.
Now, there were cave stone floors and stuffy old air that her lungs did not like; that her lost heart did not like.
This was all she knew now, so she might as well deal with it.
Rusty old chains that tied her ankles together; they held her down. A cage? Well, perhaps there was not exactly a cage, but she knew that she was in one.
A cage with too small spaces between its cold bars; too small spaces that were too small to squeeze past and into his, anyone's, anyone's arms.
She wondered if he was okay.
She knew that past the crimes of thievery, he was a good person. She hoped that he was an angel with full white wings. She knew that he wasn't going to wear a white robe; he was just like that.
She wondered if there was any hope left.
That lady – that monster – kept getting older and then kept getting younger. She had gotten crueler. Meaner. Harsher. Less mother-like (if she ever was). She still made her sing and brush, brush the golden locks that shone to taunt her.
All that glitters isn't gold.
That thought crossed her mind. Once. Once upon a time the stories said. She was in a story now; she was always in a story. When it crossed her mind, that peculiar little saying, she was singing while her mother – monster – Gothel was becoming beautiful (again).
Why did she still sing?
She sang for his sake.
She sang for the night that they spent under the lantern's light and for the way their lips almost – so close, yet so far – touched.
She sang for the life she barely started and that ended so abruptly; that wrapped itself up in chains and harm and hid itself away for forever. ("Not for forever," she sometimes told herself, "not for forever.")
She sang for the way the birds themselves sang and the way the water felt over her toes and the way the leaves rustled with a language that was all their own.
She sang for the lust she felt at night; the way she lusted for his arms to be around her just one more time and to sing to him.
She sometimes sang just for the sake of pretending that he was there; her sole audience member who actually…loved her.
She sang for the love she knew that she felt and that she hoped he felt, as well. Oh, why was she kidding herself? He loved her and that it just made it all the more tragic.
She sang for the lost princess who was truly lost.
She sang for the hope that was a fledgling little bird that was dying; each day inching closer toward its last breath.
She sang for Pascal, who was lost somewhere, somehow. The monster might have disposed of him; who knew? She did not and that scared her. She hoped that he was okay; hoped that he was raising a little Pascal family. Living a life that she couldn't.
Not knowing…She did not know much anymore. Did she ever?
Every day led her into searching for a room inside of herself. A room that would protect her; a room that would welcome her and prove itself to be a wonderful haven. A room that would let her paint. A room where he and Pascal were there, ready to welcome her into their arms.
Sometimes the room was too sad. Sometimes the room was too small. Sometimes the room was so large she felt more lost than ever. She would keep searching for a room; a safe cage that was inside a larger and mean cage with a cruel mistress who was the only one who kept a key.
She feared that she was going crazy. Was she going crazy? Crazy people did not know that they were crazy, right? Was she going to start laughing at nothing? Tugging at her hair and scratching herself and going into fits?
Was she absolutely losing it?
All this she thought, and for this she sang.
That is why the caged bird sings.
Don't kill me. :p Please read and review. Thanks for reading! -MythScavenger