So recently I kind of… "rediscovered", let's call it, one of my favorite bands: He is We. Considering before I only knew about 6 of their songs, I went out and downloaded all of the rest of their songs I could find. I absolutely fell in love with the song "Kiss It All Better"…it's just so chilling and beautifully haunting. But during my (MANY) listens, I couldn't help but connect the theme and message of the song to the end scene in Tangled. It just has so many similarities. And thus, I couldn't help writing a FanFic about it.
I have shifted the scene almost completely to fit the song and my overactive, twisted imagination. Basically, Rapunzel is the one who's stabbed and is bleeding and dying in Eugene's arms. Also, I shifted some of the lyrics, because I really don't think they had guns back then and it's not a man who killed Rapunzel, it was a woman, Gothel. Enjoy =)
-CheckItOutGirl=)
A/N: 3rd person. As usual, check out my profile for updates, questions, and polls. Oh, and I strongly suggest checking out some He is We songs. They really are amazing, in my opinion.
. . .
Kiss It All Better
He sits in his cell, and he lays on his bed, covers his head, and closes his eyes.
Eugene's mind was racing. His whole being was numb, empty, and paralyzed. His once lively, daring amber eyes were now glazed over and lifeless. The impact and loneliness of it all was unbearable; he was more than used to loneliness, and for a huge majority of his life, he was perfectly fine with the lack of interaction. It meant he could control the world—his world, his dreams—exactly how he wanted.
But then this girl, this…this…enchanting, wonderful, amazing girl, came into his life with a frying pan and a frog and changed his life in a million different ways in just the course of two days. It was more emotional change than he was used to; yet, somehow, he had managed to fall head over heels for the magical girl with the golden hair.
He covered his head, shut his eyes as tightly as he could, and did his very best to block out the world. But unfortunately, the cleared head only left vulnerability to what could fill it. Hard as he fought, he just couldn't stop the memories from drifting painfully back…
He sees a dripping knife, and the coward, she fell. And in his arms is the bleeding love of his life.
Flynn raced through the all-too-familiar forest that had been his makeshift home for years faster than he ever had in his life to get to the tower and the girl he loved.
"Rapunzel! Rapunzel, let down your hair!" he screamed in vain. When the only answer was a deafening silence, he started to climb. He was around a quarter of the way up when he heard the subtle swish of her beautiful hair tumbling down, and he pulled his way up as quick as he could, a tired but grateful smile painted on his sweaty features.
He pulled himself through the large window, panting, the smile still there. "Rapunzel, I never thought I'd see you aga—" But he abruptly cut himself off when his eyes finally adjusted to the dark room, only to witness the most horrific sight he could conjure up: the love of his life tied up and screaming, her huge green eyes pleading.
Then, out of the shadows, a pair of piercingly sinister blue-grey eyes, narrowed and almost as large as Rapunzel's, but not nearly as kind appeared. She emerged halfway out of the shadows, and a tauntingly malicious flash in said eyes glinted, almost as if they were saying "You're too late, you can't save her. If I can't have her, no one ever will." Then she thrust a shining dagger into the side of his beloved.
Cackling, she disappeared back into the shadows, and sounded like she was collecting some items, but Eugene had no time to dwell on whatever she was doing. He rushed over to Rapunzel, and collected her in his arms gingerly but protectively, tears welling in his otherwise strong eyes.
"Rapunzel." He sighed her name, fearing his voice might break if he said it louder. He had to be strong. For her. He would do anything for her.
"Eu…Eugene." The way she said his name made his heart break more than it already had; he usually loved the way she said his name, the way only she could, but the half-coughed and half-whispered version didn't have as much appeal.
Then he remembered. Grabbing her hair in a desperate try, he pressed it to her side, singing her little incantation as best as he could remember. But when it didn't glow, the tears spilled over, hot and burning with defeat. She smiled faintly. "Eugene, it doesn't work on me. Only others. Not…not me," she explained, her breathing becoming more labored. He started to cry.
"Ssh, ssh," Rapunzel soothed, reaching up to stroke his face, amazing Eugene once again—she was calming him instead of vice versa. He had failed her once again; there goes his vow to be strong for her.
"What can I do?" Eugene sobbed, the tears landing on her quivering chest as her breaths grew ever weaker.
And she cries, "Kiss it all better, I'm not ready to go. It's not your fault love, you didn't know; you didn't know."
Eugene pulls Rapunzel even closer, and softly grips the back of her head, pulling it closer with every sacred second. Their lips meet, and move in synchronization, the movements gentle and loving. It is, however, disappointingly short and sweet, Eugene not wanting to rob Rapunzel of her precious last breaths.
Her hands are so cold, and he kisses her face, and says, "Everything will be all right".
He pulls her back down with little force, for she's practically limp in his embrace and goes right along. He places her head gently down on a fallen pillow propped up on a table leg, and alternates her sweet head for her cold, clammy hands, and kisses her forehead passionately.
"Eugene!" Her hands clench in his with weak force, and her eyes become glassy as she stares blankly into his reddened, wet, beautiful eyes. Her focus suddenly returns slightly. "Eugene…I'm scared. I'm not ready to go."
His chin quivers as he tries to smile for her, to ease her pain. "It's alright, Blondie. Everything will be alright."
The corners of her mouth twitch up as she lets out half of a chuckle. He moves a hand back to her head, and strokes her hair soothingly.
He noticed the knife and his rage grew inside; he said, "I'll avenge my lover tonight".
Out of the corner of his eye, he sacrifices a second of his last few moments with her to acknowledge the shining object he noticed. It was the bloody knife Gothel stabbed Rapunzel with.
Subtly grabbing it so as not to frighten Rapunzel in her last precious moments of her unfortunate life, he glares in Gothel's general direction. He vows to himself that he will avenge Rapunzel, no matter what it costs him.
Just before she, shuddering, draws in her very last breath, Eugene gently places the base of the knife at a clump of hair he's gathered.
Gothel stepped out of the shadows just in time to see Eugene swipe the blade through her golden locks, turning them chocolate brown.
"NO!" Gothel screeches, stumbling around until Pascal, dazed and bruised after a blunt brush away from Gothel, helps trip her with Rapunzel's excess, darkened hair.
Rapunzel, her foggy mind barely comprehending what just happened, managed to utter "Wha…wha…?" to Eugene before he shushed her and held her close to tell her one last thing before she left him forever.
"Rapunzel, you were my new dream," he choked out, kissing her forehead one last time.
"And you were mine." And with that, her breathing hitches, and her chest falls for the last time.
Now he sits behind prison bars, 25 to life and she's not in his arms. He couldn't bring her back with a cut to the charm keeping the woman alive that tore his world apart.
He carries his beloved back onto her canopied bed, pulling her sheet up to her chin, tucking her in, and placing her special purple sun-stitched cloth over her face to finalize it all.
Pascal scuffles across the floor and climbs up the bedpost, nuzzling against Rapunzel's comfortable shoulder for the last time. And Eugene saw something he never thought was possible; he saw a chameleon cry.
He wasn't sure what to do now. He and Pascal had never exactly been compatible, so he wasn't sure what would happen to the chameleon. The thing certainly wasn't going with him. It would just be a constant reminder of what once was his that was eternally gone.
Not knowing what else to do, figuring he really had nothing else to live for, he climbed slowly back down the tower, and trotted back to the kingdom on Maximus. He turned himself in, and was instantly sentenced for all of his uncountable crimes and an uncountable number of charges to match, all generally adding up to 25 years to life in prison.
He didn't know what happened to Max after that, either, really; how would he? He was just a worthless prisoner now. The love of his life had been cruelly murdered. All of his dreams had dissolved with her soul. Now all he had was the time he could serve for what he'd done. It was the right thing to do. Rapunzel would have respected that.
Finally, Eugene's thoughts had caught back up with him. Now here he was, in his prison cell, arms plastered over his head, eyes closed, completely dead inside.
He stayed like that for hours, refusing the cold, gruesome meals that were offered to him; refusing anything and everything, really. Eventually night fell, and the crescent moon glowed brightly through his barred windows, illuminating his expressionless face. He weakly lifted his eyes to the moon, and couldn't help but imagine Rapunzel sitting on the edge of it, brushing her long hair that seems to fall all the way to Earth, laughing and smiling and being…her.
He holds onto a memory; all it is, is a memory.
He keeps that picture in his head and plays it over and over again, as well as the many other memories he has of her, comforting him somewhat. Then he curls up on his side on his bumpy, hay-filled cot, and closes his eyes, a single tear leaking through one and running down his cheek.
He cries, "Stay with me until I fall asleep, stay with me. Stay with me until I fall asleep, stay with me."