Disclaimer : I do not own Tangled :)

AN : Hello people :) This isn't exactly the first story I've ever posted here, but it is the first that I am actually happy with (as you can see from the lack of any other fics on this profile). Please enjoy, any feedback is welcome :) I apologize in advance for any typos and mistakes you may find here (and please report them to me if you spot them).

10 Truths About Mother Gothel

1. In the first year after the initial kidnapping, Mother Gothel considers giving the little princess back to her parents all of two times.

The first is only a few short days after the act, when, in the middle of the day, she looks at the baby playing with blocks, innocent and adorable and fragile as a flower, and wonders how she could have even thought of robbing this little girl from her parents. This is a baby that could have grown up adored and protected by millions of people, that could have grown up to become a beautiful princess and a wonderful queen, that could have had a life to be envied by everyone. The moment after, she looks into a mirror, notices the wrinkles, the bags under her eyes, the white hair – and panics.

The second is when, for the fourth time, Rapunzel screams into the night, crying for comfort and deprives her of her precious sleep.

2. Mother Gothel has been present for many firsts in Rapunzel's life – her first words, her first steps, her first birthday – and has felt the pride of a mother for every single one of them. However the one that has marked her most is the girl's first words.

At this point and for the rest of her life, she wonders what she could've done to merit being called mother by the little golden bundle of joy.

3. The first time Rapunzel asks the question, even as she answers in a calm and soothing voice, she feels her heart hammering in her chest, threatening to burst because this is her flower, her precious little flower, and she will be damned before she lets anyone near her.

She doesn't quite realize it at the time, but it is more than worry about the safety of the magical hair that haunts her so: it is the knowledge that there are people like her out there, people that would do anything to stay young and healthy forever.

4. When Rapunzel asks her to actually leave the Tower, she pauses because this is the moment that she has always dreaded, yet expected, this is a moment for which she has prepared a whole speech, a speech that she has practiced countless times, a speech that somehow eludes her in this moment of blank fear. The little girl, a woman now, repeats her question. She takes that time to compose herself and barely hold back a sigh of relief as the speech comes back to her and the words flow.

Young Rapunzel is suitably cowed, but it is for her own good.

5. Mother Gothel doesn't really forget about Rapunzel's 18th birthday, she is simply not sure how to go about it: this is a step forward that any normal young girl should take, but that she cannot allow this particular girl to take, the first step outside of the proverbial parental nest. So she goes about teasing the young woman smiling brightly in front of her, filled with hopes and dreams of all kind that she will never be able to fulfill.

6. When she comes back after the argument, she does not expect the subject to come back up, but it does. And so, in a momentary loss of control, she screams in rage, revealing a side of her that she had always tried to keep away from the girl. There is no going back, and she can only feign ignorance after the act, but she knows that now, something has changed. For good.

7. When she sees the great white horse standing in front of her (after scaring her half to death, the great oaf), it takes a while for it to click in her head that this is a palace horse, from the very palace where the girl was stolen. When it does, she can't get back to the tower fast enough, all the while hoping, praying, that her flower will be fine.

In her panic, she forgets that palace knights would never think to harm the princess of their kingdom. She forgets that, as things stand, she is more dangerous to the princess than they are.

Her fear is justified, however, when she gets to the room at the top of the tower and doesn't find knights, but a satchel, a crown, a wanted poster and a missing princess.

The knife she grabs before leaving is reserved solely for the criminal that dared to remove her little girl from this place.

8. She feels completely and utterly betrayed as she listens in on the singing (far from the very drunken slurs that usually emanate from such places) at The Snuggly Duckling. Rapunzel had left her not only willingly, but gladly. And there is very little that hurts her more than to hear her declare this at the top of her lungs (and in verse).

9. Her plot to get Rapunzel back from the thief almost fails. Flynn Rider is surprisingly easy to lead away, but it is the twins that interfere with her plan. While they are surprised by her betrayal (not the smartest duo, they are), they also have a few hundred pounds of muscle over her and it is only sheer desperation and adrenaline and the thought I need to protect Rapunzel! that fills her mind that allow her to overcome those two hulking brutes.

10. When Rapunzel begs her for a few minutes of freedom in order to save her beau, it is not the promise of forever that sways her, it is the look of despair contained in her brilliant orbs, a look that said I love him, I love him, Ilovehim, a look that is too reminiscent of her own youth, a youth that she'd almost forgotten, so very long ago, of those perfect years, of the happiness, of the ecstasy of those years.

However, as she falls to her death, as she crumbles into ashes, mere minutes later, those thoughts leave her mind.