A/N: Short Tangled drabble. I just have a lot of feelings regarding our beloved Eugene.


When she says she likes Eugene Fitzherbert better than Flynn Rider, he thinks she's crazy.

He stands there for a moment, not knowing whether to believe her. It's almost funny, really. She doesn't know any better, of course. She's just being nice. She doesn't know anything about Eugene Fitzherbert; she barely knows anything about Flynn Rider.

Maybe, he thinks, this is just her way of saying she forgives me.

She's saying that she's sorry he had to turn to thievery, she's sorry for what he's become, and she believes that there is still a real person under there somewhere.

And that she just might be willing to help coax him out again.

The joke's on her, though, because Eugene Fitzherbert isn't such a great guy, either – he never was. Eugene Fitzherbert was just as much of a dick as Flynn Rider is now – perhaps even worse. Perhaps even more ungrateful, perhaps even more insensible, and definitely less stylish. He's a hell of a lot happier now, and he's not going to go back to being someone he detests just for Rapunzel's sake. It will be a lost cause, because she will never find anything good in him anyway.

It's a nice sentiment, anyhow, he thinks. "Well," he says, trying to keep the scorn out of his voice, "then you'd be the first. But thank you."

He manages to smile up at her, and he's surprised by how easy it was. He really is thankful that she was trying to make him feel better. It's not her fault that she's so naïve. She thinks people can change no matter how much they've screwed up in the past, but the truth of the matter is that they can't. She has no way of knowing this, of course, but he does. Once you make mistakes, there's no going back.

He would never tell her this, though. It would break his heart to crush her spirits like that.

Sighing a little, Flynn turns to go get some firewood.