AN: I was actually inspired by a nightmare I had myself, and I wrote this literally after I woke up. I needed something to distract me from it! Because this is my first fan fiction, I would really appreciate it if you could give me some advice/let me know if this sucks or not. Just fyi, I'm not completely decided on a title yet. I hope to write a lot more (and make this story a little less – well mmm, vague)! Thank you so much for reading!
Rapunzel gasped for breath as she started up out of bed. She put her hand to her chest over her purple nightgown and glanced around the room. It took her a minute to remember she was in her castle in Corona, rather than her tower hidden in the forest. She shut her eyes as tightly as she could, but she couldn't get that image out of her head.
Back in her tower, Rapunzel's nightmares consisted solely of Mother Gothel coming home late after getting lost in the forest or Pascal hiding somewhere she could not figure out. She would start up after these "nightmares," but it would only take a glimpse of a peacefully sleeping Pascal to soothe her fears. However, now that Rapunzel was exposed to the outside world of ruffians, thugs, and men with pointy teeth (although she had yet to encounter these people), these little nightmares grew to be a little less harmless.
Rapunzel looked to her right and saw Pascal curled up on his royal purple pillow. She smiled at the cute little sight, but it didn't stop her heart from racing. Rapunzel looked to her left and saw Eugene snoring peacefully. She hated to disturb him when he was sleeping, but sometimes these things just couldn't wait.
"Eugene!" she loudly whispered. No response. She shook his shoulder lightly. "Eugeeeene, wake up!" He mumbled a little. Rapunzel groaned. It was going to take forever to wake Eugene up. She shook him harder. "Eugene, please!" Eugene opened his eyes slowly to the sight of Rapunzel's face, but he knew something was obviously bothering her.
"What is it?" he asked in a concerned-yet-groggy morning voice.
"I – I had a nightmare," Rapunzel admitted, blushing slightly. It sounded a little silly saying this to the once-most-wanted thief in all of Corona, and all of a sudden Rapunzel regretted waking Eugene for something so unimportant.
"Did you see another vicious bunny?" Eugene teased, reminding Rapunzel of her extreme paranoia following her first few steps of outside her tower. He started to shut his eyes as he smiled and remembered how disoriented and cute his princess was.
Rapunzel's face changed from embarrassed to defeated, and she didn't even have a chance to retort. "I guess so," she managed to say, but Eugene was already asleep again. At least her heart wasn't beating at the speed of light anymore. But something just felt… off. Rapunzel got out of bed and went to the open window.
When she was little, Rapunzel used to look out the window at night, even though Mother never allowed it. She always wondered what it would be like to have an endless amount of places to go and things to see; to think that now she's finally able to experience all these things is just incredible to her. But how could she feel like something is wrong when she has so many reasons to believe she is so fortunate?
It's all because of that nightmare, Rapunzel concluded, I wouldn't be feeling like this if it weren't for that awful dream. Where do dreams come from, anyway? She made a mental note to find a book on dreams tomorrow when she goes around town. For now, however, Rapunzel crawled back into bed and slept a dreamless sleep.