Disclaimer: I do not now nor have I ever owned Tangled, and neither do I claim so. I use the movie's characters with the utmost respect for its owners and am not planning any money-making schemes.

"Do you think she was lonely?"

The question was spoken quietly, only heard because of the relative silence of the room. There had only been the slide of a brushstroke, a turning of the page, the swishing of water as Rapunzel rinsed her paintbrush, and now and again the rumbling snore of Pascal. Eugene and she often shared such moments where they simply sat with their own activities, enjoying the presence of each other yet keeping to themselves. She would be doing one of a number of things. Sometimes it was painting, as she'd been interested in learning to hone that skill, or sometimes school work that her tutors gave her, but it could just as easily be knitting or solving a puzzle. He, on the other hand, usually just stuck with reading.

He was still probably lucky he heard the question anyway, though, and briefly wondered if he may have missed something before it. Looking over the pages of his book, Eugene tried to find some context. Rapunzel was standing with her back to him, as she hadn't turned away from the easel, so he couldn't see the expression on her countenance. He did, however, notice the brush in her hand hovering just over the painting she was working on, and a deep maroon smudge below it. Upon further inspection, it appeared to form the basic outlining of a dress. A sinking feeling formed in his stomach.

"What was that, Blondie?" he asked, the tone carefully kept light. Perhaps he was wrong, or perhaps the subject would just be dropped if he played dumb. He gently set his book down anyway, full attention on her.

"Mother," Rapunzel responded, "Mother Gothel. Maybe she was lonely?"

And there it was.

It had been several months, several wonderful, blissful months, yet they'd somehow managed to not talk about Mother Gothel at all in that time. Eugene would say that Rapunzel had tactfully avoided it, which she had, but he was guilty of that as well and couldn't ascribe all the fault to her. There had been plenty of openings for the subject, and plenty of elephants in plenty of rooms. He wasn't even sure why they avoided it, but it had become a silent agreement to do so all the same. It appeared today was the day for breaking silence.

He knew how he felt about Mother Gothel, about her cruel treatment, but Rapunzel's feelings on this matter were uncharted territory. He'd been curious, but not overly so, and certainly not enough to break their unspoken pact by asking. That seemed a moot point now.

"Nah," Eugene replied in his easy way, "I bet she had tons of friends, probably had sleepovers with all the vultures or something."

The paintbrush lowered, as did her head, and was placed on a nearby cloth. Arms wrapped around slender waist as she held herself. Heaving a slight sigh, Eugene crept towards her. His own arms, much larger than hers, though she definitely had her fair share of upper body strength, enclosed her small frame.

"Hey now," he began, turning her to face him as her shoulders trembled, "What brought this on?"

Her hair had fallen forward, not enough to truly cover her face, but enough to obscure it from his angle above her. Finally, she looked up, though still didn't quite meet his gaze.

"I just... I keep thinking. There has to be some other reason." Her eyes met his for the briefest of moments before dropping again. "All that time we spent together... She wasn't just evil."

"Rapunzel..."

"I know she wasn't perfect, Eugene, but she took care of me for most of my life!" Desperation crept into her voice as she continued. "There had to have been something that was real there. It couldn't have all been about my powers. Maybe... Maybe she wanted me because she was lonely. Maybe she needed another person with her. I can't believe that she didn't care about me at all!"

And what could he say to that? He certainly had no idea what was going through the mind of Mother Gothel, nor did he care to.

He thought back to his days at the orphanage. The couple that ran the place hadn't been exceptionally kind, more overworked than anything else, but he'd always gotten the sense that they cared. Even when they didn't have time to take care of them all, he could tell that they tried. For Rapunzel, it seemed like the opposite. Mother Gothel had showered her with fake care and attention, raised her as her own, and warned her against the dangers of the world, only to reveal herself as one of those dangers. Had she felt anything more for Rapunzel? Was she even capable of love? He wasn't sure.

"It's okay to feel attached to her," he said instead. "It's okay that you still love her."

At that, Rapunzel seemed to break just a little bit more. Tears flowed freely and her hands flew up to cover her eyes as she sobbed.

"She really was a mother to me, Eugene. I know you and the rest of the world think awful terrible things about her, but she was all I knew. She took care of me all of my life. I loved her. Even knowing everything now, I think I still do." She paused, lowered her hands enough to look at him. "Why do I still love her?"

This he could answer.

"Because you're kind and loving by nature," he told her. "Because you can't just flip a switch to turn off how you feel about someone, no matter what they've done. Because you're human."

She smiled and hugged him fully.

That day, they didn't get any other work done. He never picked his book back up, and she didn't even bother to put away her paints. They held each other until a guard interrupted them, announcing that the king and queen were awaiting their presence at dinner.

A few days later, Rapunzel journeyed back to her tower. Eugene offered to go with her, but she insisted that she had to do it on her own. They could come back together at some other time and she would show him her childhood home. Right now, she wanted closure. She wanted to have a moment where she could remember Mother Gothel's love without fear of judgment.

At the first sight of the dark cloak lying near the base of the tower, Rapunzel allowed herself to mourn the loss of a mother.

Author's Notes:

Yeah... So this is probably over a year old. I'm no longer so busy and I wanted to get back into writing. Found this on my computer and figured it was a good start.

I looove Tangled. When I bought it, I watched it every day for almost a month.

I always found Rapunzel's relationship with Mother Gothel to be interesting. This was my exploration of that.