Beautiful Reflection

Bahocean

Summary: It used to take her forever to brush her hair. Now she has to find something to fill the time.

This is my first "Tangled" fanfic, my first fanfic I posted on , so I'm kinda nervous. I REALLY wanted to make it a romance, but dang it, it just wouldn't come out that way! Don't worry it's not a tragedy, it's just an oneshot. Anyway, enjoy!

Despite Mother Gothel's best attempts at breaking her spirit and confidence, Rapunzel had somehow made it through eighteen years fairly intact. She didn't realize how rare that was, how her indomitable spirit challenged everyone who met her to strive to be better, to reach higher. She didn't understand that she was really DIFFERENT from almost ANYONE, how she was special. She just thought she was fairly normal for a girl who'd been isolated in a tower for her entire life.

That was okay, though. Those who loved her realized she was special.

They loved her and cherished her, worried for and looked out for her. THEY didn't realize that by watching her blossom like the magic golden flower that had saved her mother's life, they themselves were becoming the better people they were meant to be.

But that was okay, though. Rapunzel realized it.

Oh, she wasn't really aware that SHE was the cause of their improvement. She just figured that they were changing because they COULD. She had, after all, changed for the better when she met the debonair thief Flynn Rider and "convinced" him (some might have called it blackmail, but who really wants to quibble?) to take her to see the floating lanterns. She had met such good people in the Snuggly Duckling, such good people that they had rescued Flynn/Eugene so that Eugene could rescue her and she could rescue HIM. Having never really known them as "BAD", she just automatically figured they were "GOOD". That, in and of itself, was rare and precious to find.

She had been reflecting on good and evil a lot lately. After all, going from having to brush 70 feet of hair to having to brush about eight inches left a girl a LOT of extra time to fill. And even the energetic Princess of Corona had to settle and think ONCE in awhile.

Despite her sheltered upbringing, Rapunzel wasn't COMPLETELY naïve. She KNEW there was bad in this world she had been ignominiously dropped into. The love of her life was a former THIEF, after all! But just as any good princess, as any good PERSON, should know, she understood that the bad was always, SHOULD always, be outweighed by the great. She also knew that there were DEGREES of bad and good, and very seldom were the two ever COMPLETELY black and white.

Like the unselfish, loving girl that the evil in HER life had been unable to tear down, and the strong capable woman she was becoming, she preferred to think of those she loved rather than herself. It made her happy to see Eugene's face light up when he saw her, to hear her mother, her true MOTHER, laugh at something Rapunzel said. Watching her father grin at the "pub thugs," or Maximus going about his "duties" as Captain of the Guard. Of seeing Pascal, dear best friend forever Pascal, getting dizzy from all the happy colors he could change into. And BECAUSE she didn't understand that the "people" in her circle of love were allowing themselves to change because they wanted to be worthy of HER, she was better able to influence them to be the brighter stars that they could be.

And that kind of unselfish, heartwarming love casts a beautiful reflection in the souls of those loved.

The End

Okay, please review! I'm afraid that after writing and re-reading this, that I didn't do as well as I wanted. A Review or three would make me feel better! (But I'll continue to write either way!)