Alright, so I got this idea from one of my other stories. (If you must know, the summary from The Kingdom Lights Shined should be very informative). I don't know if anyone's done this before... If so, I hope my story isn't too similar to it (them).
This one-shot is a (quoting one of my teacher's here) "winter" gift to anyone who has ever reviewed an of my stories.
I suppose that this could be included in my "Heaven is the Face" universe, if only because I use the same name for their oldest child. Of course, it happens prior to that, and you don't have to read that if you don't want to.
I don't own Tangled. If I did, well... I'd probably not be writing fanfiction on the internet for free... or studying like crazy to get into a good college. I would probably be a lot older, too.
Rapunzel was sitting down for tea with her mother when the guard came.
Her parents had told her that other girls had come before her, claiming to be her. Of course, none of them had stayed for very long. And the Queen hadn't immediately known the girl was her daughter, like she had for Rapunzel. None of them had been... right. Because none of them had been her.
No one had expected another one to come. Not now, anyways. Rapunzel had been back for a long time. She was twenty-nine, and married to Eugene. Addison had just turned four, for goodness sake!
If someone was going to come, they should have come ten years ago.
Eugene came in from the garden, Addison on his shoulders. He stopped when he saw a young, blonde woman glaring at his wife.
"Mom, I can't believe you would just let any girl come in and tell you she's the princess! I mean, Dandelion here isn't even blonde!" Her voice was haughty; she expected to be believed. She did bear an uncanny resemblance to the queen, though it wasn't as close as Rapunzel's.
"Rapunzel," Eugene corrected, his eyes narrowing.
The woman glanced up, her eyes widening just a tad when seeing his face. A light blush touched her cheeks, and she glanced down, lightly biting her lower lip. When her eyes came back up to meet his, she asked, "And who might you be?"
Wow, this girl must never get out! She doesn't recognize me from my posters? He lifted Addison from his shoulders and set her towards her mom. She toddled off as he replied, "Eugene Fitzherbert. And you are...?"
"Madelyn," she replied, smiling slightly. She shot a glare at Rapunzel before adding, "Princess Madelyn."
"From...?"
"What?"
He fought back a laugh; he could see Rapunzel was trying to stifle a fit of giggles as well. "Where are you from? I've never heard of a Princess Madelyn."
"I'm the lost princess."
"Oh, really? And here I thought Rapunzel was the lost princess."
"Well, she's obviously lying. She's not even blonde!"
"So?"
The queen chose this moment to ruin his fun. "Madelyn!" she exclaimed, smiling at the girl, drawing her attention away from the handsome young man. "Why don't you tell us why you think that you are the lost princess?"
"Well, I have blonde hair and green eyes..."
"Yes?" the queen replied, prompting her to continue.
"And I look a lot like you, Your Majesty..."
"And?"
"And, um, I... My birthday is the same day as the lights festival. And my dad said I wasn't his."
"And those are your only reasons?"
"... Yes."
Eugene couldn't hold back the snort that quickly followed. The queen's eyes strayed to his.
"Well, I believe that we can allow you to stay a few days—"
"What?!" Eugene and Rapunzel cried together. Addison giggled.
"—just so we can check a few things, and maybe... enlighten Madelyn on a few topics that might be of particular interest to her?"
Rapunzel glanced at him, and he could see the mischief burning there. This was the look she'd had when they'd snuck out a few years ago to go skinny-dipping in the lake, the look that she had whenever she read Addison The Tales of Flynnagan Rider and added her own anecdotes. "That sounds reasonable."
Madelyn had spent the night at the palace, had been invited to a private dinner with Their Majesties, and was now taking a tour of the garden with Rapunzel and Eugene. She kept trying to catch Eugene's eye, kept flirting with him like he wasn't married and a father. He suddenly realized that she might not realize he and Rapunzel were...
"Hey, Blondie?" He asked, looking at Rapunzel. He heard Madelyn respond, but he ignored her. "Remember the night I proposed to you?"
"Oh, yes! It was so beautiful out. We were... by that tree over there! I remember because I thought that the flowers in the branches looked so pretty, and everything about it was perfect. I couldn't have dreamed of a better way for you to ask me to marry you!"
He glanced at Madelyn. She was pale, but her cheeks were very quickly becoming red. She frowned. "Eugene's your... husband?"
Rapunzel looked at her, and Eugene could tell she was having a heard time not laughing at the look on the blonde's face. "Why, yes, of course! Why else would we allow an ex-thief to stay in the palace?"
"Ex-thief?"
"Madelyn, did you live under a rock you're whole life? I used to be the dashing Flynn Rider! Then, I found Blondie here, almost died once, almost died again two days later, actually died later that same day, and realized at some point I couldn't waste my fourth shot at life by not spending the remainder of it with her."
"You died?!"
Rapunzel suddenly excused herself, no longer able to stifle the fit of laughter consuming her.
At dinner that evening, Madelyn kept trying to start a conversation with him, obviously intent on discovering the meaning behind his earlier words. But every time she began a sentence, either the Queen or Rapunzel would suddenly interrupt her in some way. It ranged from asking if she had enjoyed her stay and how she liked the food to how her childhood and been and how she had discovered she was the lost princess.
He was enjoying himself quite a bit.
Unfortunately, his enjoyment ended when she was finally able to get a word in edge-wise. "Now, Mr. Fitzherbert, I wanted to ask you about something you said earlier."
"Uh... Sure?"
"When you said 'died'... did that actually—"
"Yes."
"Then, how are you alive now?"
"Rapunzel."
The utterly confused look on Madelyn's face was priceless. Rapunzel was able to insert herself back into the conversation then, allowing him to begin enjoying dinner again.
It had taken him four hours to get Addison to fall asleep. Four. Hours.
He'd told Rapunzel that he'd get the little rascal to fall asleep in "just a few minutes" three and a half hours ago. Figures the night he volunteers himself for bedtime duty, Addison refuses to fall asleep.
He almost fell over when Madelyn jumped out from around a corner. "GAH! Madelyn, what the heck are you doing?!"
"Hey, Eugene. I never did get to finish asking you what you meant earlier."
"Look, I'm exhausted, can't this wait 'til tomorrow?"
"NO! I want to know what happened... now!"
Eugene blinked. This girl was starting to act really crazy. "You know what? Fine... I was stabbed by a woman who had kept Rapunzel locked in a tower her whole life because she wanted to stay young forever, Rapunzel bargained her freedom for a chance to heal me with her magic hair, I cut off said magic hair, the woman's age caught up to her in seconds and she turned to dust, I died, and then Rapunzel cried and sang the healing song and I came back to life. Happy?"
He pushed past her and continued on to bed. Who knows how long she stood there gaping like a fish.
The next morning, the Queen decided to put a stop to his fun. Apparently, Madelyn was driving herself crazy trying to work out what had "actually" happened.
He and Rapunzel sat down to tell the story. "This is the story of how I died," he began ominously...
... At the end of his tale, "Princess" Madelyn was in tears. "Oh my gosh! How could I ever even think that I was the princess?! I'm so sorry for intruding like this; I'll just go back home, and we can all just forgot this even happened."
"No!"
Eugene and the Queen were both surprised by Rapunzel's outburst. "What?"
"For one thing, you're really sweet! For another, we've spent so much time with you the past few days, I can't imagine you not being here anymore. And finally... Addison thinks you're her aunt, and I think that having you around would be great for her and any future kids Eugene and I have."
The next thing Eugene knew, he was lying on the floor staring up into three very worried faces.