Rapunzel stared at herself in the mirror as the servants fussed over her hair. It was short…so, so short. The servants were arguing how to style it. It was too short to do much with it and the cut job her mother had given her made it look terrible.
She felt like a piece of her was missing. She used to spend hours upon hours managing her hair…now it was gone…and she felt as though all of that hard work was wasted.
The servants decided to simply pin some of it from her face while leaving a few curly wisps near her face. She hated it. Once they left, she continued to stare at herself in the mirror. She didn't know how long she was sitting there…but she felt something inside her crack. She raised a shaky hand and ran it down her hair. Where her hair would have continued to grow…it stopped. It was so sudden…like how her life suddenly stopped after her mother had banished her to the middle of a swamp.
Her face contorted to a mixture of anger and pain. She stood and grabbed the hairbrush and threw it as hard as she could at the mirror with a scream. The mirror shattered and Rapunzel yanked the pins from her hair and she yanked on the short strands, as if pulling it would make it grow.
She had tears running down her cheeks and sobs wracked her body. She hardly noticed when her Prince rushed in and grabbed her arms.
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, stop, what is it? What's wrong my darling?" he asked frantically. Worry was in his beautiful blue eyes and in his eyebrows.
Rapunzel buried her face into his shoulder and sobbed.
Her Prince gently stroked her hair and gently guided her to the bed. He sat her down and tried to calm her down.
"Rapunzel, my darling, what ails you?" he asked. It absolutely killed him to see her in this way. He never wanted her to feel this way. She had already been through enough…they both had.
Rapunzel shook her head as more tears ran down her cheeks. She didn't want to tell him. She didn't want him to think she was some conceited child who cared too much for her looks.
"Please tell me, my darling," he said. He gently sat her up and used his thumbs to wipe the tears from her cheeks.
Rapunzel looked at him through blurry eyes and she tried to calm herself down. Then she ran her fingers through her hair again and was once again surprised when her hair stopped just below her chin. "I…hate it," she whispered.
"You hate what my love? Your hair?" he asked with concern. "Is that what this is about?"
Rapunzel looked down and more tears ran down her cheeks.
"Rapunzel…my love, my darling," her Prince started. "Do you not know how beautiful you are?"
Rapunzel looked up at him.
He smiled softly at her and wiped her tears away again. "You could have no hair on your head…and it wouldn't change how much I love you nor how beautiful you are. But of course, your beauty is not the only factor that made me fall for you. Your kindness and devotion and curiosity make you who you are…not your hair," he said.
"It was a part of me," she whispered and sniffled.
"I know…" he said. He leaned forward and looked into her navy blue eyes. "How can I make you feel better?"
Rapunzel looked into his blue eyes and realized that he was right…she wasn't her hair. Though she missed it terribly…it was a symbol of her captivity within the tower. She was free now…that burden was gone. She was his now…and he was hers. She wrapped her arms around him. "Don't be like my hair. Don't be cut from me," she whispered.
"Never," he whispered back to her. He gently pressed his lips to hers and Rapunzel knew that everything would be alright. She never had to be afraid.