This was a surprise and I can't believe I'm writing it...

I realize this has been done probably a dozen times before or more. Who knows—the world is large and expansive. And I've got a story to tell, so you're just going to have to sit there and listen.

The kingdom of Corona, on a small island but grand and beautiful. The nicest kingdom to visit. For eighteen years they've been having a lot of issues concerning a lost princess. But as of six months ago, the princess, well, was not so lost anymore. Word spread quickly about how Corona's lost princess was found. Stories varied about where she was and who whisked her away, but one thing remained true, and it was the bit of irony that I just absolutely relished. She was found and returned, safe and sound, by the one name everyone in the underground world knows. Daring rogue, heartbreaker, and wanted thief Flynn Rider. Except I know him better as Eugene Fitzherbert.

But forget about that for now. Right now, we need to go over to another kingdom. A kingdom wreathed in forests and mountains. While Corona bore the sun on its crest, this kingdom bore the moon on theirs. The kingdom of Gemma, ruled by a stern king and a greedy queen. Upon hearing that Corona's lost heir was finally found, the queen saw an opportunity for her son, the Prince of Gemma, to become a ruler far more powerful than her husband. The king of Gemma had no objections to this, however, and was all for it. There was just this tiny little snag in their plan.

You see, when the princess was 16 the king and queen of Gemma had the idea to find a girl with green eyes and long blonde hair to pretend to be the princess. Then they would have their son marry her as she assumes the throne in Corona. Their plot was never discovered, however, but it turned out greedy bandits did try to pretend to be the lost princess many times over. I'm still wondering how easy it was for this "lost princess" to actually be the real princess.

Anyhow, Corona was facing a crisis. They need an heir, and the princess may have been long gone. As part of the peace treaty between two kingdoms, the king of Corona and his queen, and the king of Gemma and his queen, met together to discuss land expansion and where their border shall meet. It was going fine, like most discussion on land and borders, until the slightest slip of the tongue by the queen of Gemma. It was common knowledge amongst the high-class society and other royalty that the queen of Corona had trouble during her pregnancy with the princess. The doctors have said that one more would probably kill her, and there was no magic flower to save her this time. Now, the queen of Gemma, was a fool for asking, but as the greedy woman she is she dared ask. She wanted to know if Corona would need the aid of Gemma in terms of who shall succeed the throne.

Now this idea wasn't very pleasant to hear, especially for the king and queen of Corona. They knew of their predicament, but clearly sixteen years of longing was still not enough time to heal. It was unknown if they would ever get over their pain in losing their daughter. Unfortunately, the king of Gemma makes a slight slip of the tongue and makes the horrid suggestion that the princess was dead. The stupid realist. Because of that the peace was strained and ever since Gemma and Corona have been in bad standing with each other.

But now, half a year after the princess has returned home, Corona is lively and full of rejoice, and her king and queen are willing to forgive the royalty of Gemma for their slight. They understood, Gemma's king and queen were just being realistic, and perhaps moving on would have been beneficial for the whole of the kingdom. But finally their prayers were answered, that the lanterns did call out to her and bring her home. And so a girl named Rapunzel wears the crown meant for her, reuniting with the family she was taken from long ago.

Ironically, that same crown had been stolen from the palace just days before the princess's eventual return. Which leads me to this interesting stage of development. Oh, Eugene, the things you get up to…

"Scheduled for the gallows yesterday, you escape with the aid of the Snuggly Duckling thugs—!" started the Captain.

"Is that what we're calling them now?" interrupted Eugene. "Might want to ask them, because—well I see it fits, but I don't think it'll do much for their reputation if they're known as the Snuggly Duckling—"

"Silence!" snarled the Captain. "You come back with a young woman claiming she is the lost princess. How do we know this isn't just a stunt you pulled to get out of paying for your crimes?" He glared at Eugene, who really didn't find the glare all that intimidating.

"Look, I was at the end of my rope—literally—and I was desperate. Rapunzel was in trouble and I had to go help her! I saw a way out and took it," he explained.

And indeed he did. He recalled his feelings of guilt and sadness forced aside at the sight of the Stabbington brothers slumped against the walls of their cells as Eugene was taken to death row. Glad to know he'd made one of them wet his self during that brief interrogation was enough to light a fire in Eugene's heart. Well, he doubted how he was going to make an escape and get to Rapunzel, and at that point he wasn't even sure she was in her tower by then. And then he saw Vladmir's ceramic unicorn. He never thought he'd see anything more wonderful. Besides Rapunzel, that is.

"You could have told us, Rider," said the Captain, pacing around him in circles. Ah, the circle of intimidation. Never saw that one before. Eugene sighed.

"I did. You know. When your guys pulled me off of the boat, which I was tied to by the way, in case you didn't notice. And when you were hauling me off to the gallows. You ought to remember that, you were there." His patience was wearing thin.

Earlier that day everything was fine. Eugene was relieved in more ways than one. Rapunzel was safe, Gothel was gone, and now her powers were limited to magic tears. And thank goodness for that. Eugene felt kind of stupid that he could have at least waited for her to heal his wound with her hair before cutting it—there was no guarantee that her tears would have worked in the first place. He still remembered that cold, weightless feeling of being dead. The way Rapunzel's sad green eyes vanished from his sight and how his skin wouldn't react to her touch. He couldn't feel anything.

Lesser point of the day was about an hour or two of sitting in that tower with Rapunzel trying to sort out the difference between memory and reality. Except the problems with memories are that it was, once upon a time ago, reality. Despite the magical healing of Rapunzel's tear he still felt the absence of warmth from his body, and there was a ghost of the pain he felt when he was stabbed. And dying.

Admittedly, sitting in that uncomfortable wooden chair while being doubted by the Captain was loads better than dealing with the fact that, yes, Eugene, you died. You died in the arms of the girl you've steadily fallen for. That was a bigger shock than the fact that she brought him back. With a magic tear.

After moping in the tower, Eugene and Rapunzel spent the night talking about what happened after they were separated. He was desperate to clarify that he didn't leave her—oh no, he was going to give the crown to the Stabbingtons and go right back to her. But they found out about her magic hair and knocked him out before he could escape.

He learned from Rapunzel that Mother Gothel had tricked the brothers into thinking they were going to become rich off of using Rapunzel's hair. That, however, was after the curtains of lies had been torn down. Everything was almost the way it was, save for her broken heart over Eugene leaving her, that is until Rapunzel saw the crest of Corona hidden in her numerous artworks in the tower. And he saw them too, as soon as she pointed it out. In the flower painted over her bed, in the dress of the painting of Rapunzel dancing—it was everywhere. And it was then, to his shock, that she came out and told him who she was.

Rapunzel was the lost princess.

If there was anything that would have distracted him the most from the fact that he died, it was that. Wanted thief Flynn Rider parading around the kingdom square with the lost princess. And the funny thing was, it wasn't too hard to believe.

Back in the interrogation room the Captain just asked him if Eugene thought they were all dumb enough to believe that Rapunzel really was the lost princess. There had been many girls sauntering into the court claiming to be the lost princess—oh Eugene knew that story. A couple of girls who almost got away with it were girls he'd dated in his teenage years. Last he heard of them was that they were in Gemma working off their debt to society.

"Look, guys, the king and queen really aren't objecting to the fact that Rapunzel is the lost princess. Why doubt it, then? She's a sweet girl, really, and you couldn't have asked for a better princess. Great singing voice, has this charm about her where she could get just about anyone to listen to her," started Eugene, being the most painfully honest he'd been his entire life. "Is there really any doubt?" He looked up at the Captain and his men. "Search within yourselves," he muttered, "you know it to be true."

They looked as mad as they were when they pulled Eugene out of the royal family embrace, accusing him of trying to swindle his way into the royal family so he could steal their treasures and blah, blah, blah.

In all honesty, Eugene really couldn't care anymore about the guards mistrusting him and his claims that he found the lost princess. Technically, she found herself, and he was just there making sure that she wasn't going to live a life of servitude to that Gothel woman. Right at that moment he just wanted to know if she was okay and settling in fine and that she wasn't too lonely and alienated without him.

Thankfully Maximus put a stop to it, somehow managing through grunts and snorts after bursting through the door to have the guards back off. Eugene resisted the urge to thank him again, remembering how awkward it was the last time. Smiling broadly at the Captain with a two-fingered salute, Eugene followed the stallion out of the interrogation room and into the bright glow of the afternoon sun. The sky was turning pink and orange. He and Rapunzel got there by midday. Did they really keep Eugene locked up for that long?

"Eugene!"

He never realized how tense his muscles were until he heard her voice. Up ahead and standing in between the king and queen was Rapunzel. Eugene half-expected the crown he stole to be on her head and a new dress with a pair of shoes given to her. He was wrong and there might have been a reason for that. He didn't want to think the king and queen as shallow, and they certainly didn't show it

His thoughts were interrupted when Rapunzel ran up to him and gave him a big hug. She leaned forward for a kiss but after seeing the looks on the king and queen's faces—which weren't appalled or aghast, but a kind of knowing look that just made him all the more nervous—Eugene put his hands on her shoulders and slightly pushed her away. She looked at him, confused.

"What's wrong?"

"Um… this isn't really comfortable for me," he said.

"What, am I hugging to tight?" she said with a smirk and with a tone that mocked him. Yet she relaxed her arms and caught him glancing over at the king and queen. He doesn't like that the queen and the king are just smiling at him so knowingly. He coughed, uncomfortable. This was… unexpected.

"Hello, Mr. Fitzherbert," greeted the queen. Eugene stood frozen and made a bit of a spasm in an attempt to bow, but the queen just hugged him. He felt all of the air leave his lungs. "Thank you for finding my daughter and returning her safely."

"Her safety is my number one priority," said Eugene after being able to find his voice again. It was only after seeing the looks on the king and queen's faces did he realize how… how serious he sounded. That his voice had softened and that he'd looked at Rapunzel as he said it, stroking her face with utmost care. And with a pained feeling that yes, Eugene, you died and almost lost her.

He just realized how sick he felt.

"Perhaps a nice warm stew would be good for the you, young man," said the king. "After dinner perhaps you can tell us about yourself." As refreshing as it was to have the king and queen accept him, Eugene wasn't feeling any better with the idea of talking about himself. It wasn't just because the highlights of his life were his days as the dashing rogue Flynn Rider, but that he was Eugene again. And that meant telling them the beginning.

Rapunzel ran up to walk alongside her father, who merrily laughed at the stories she told him. Eugene was glad to see that Rapunzel was holding up just fine after what happened at the tower. She'd gotten over bringing him back from the dead pretty quickly. It was when they made their way out of the secret passage and around the front to meet up with Maximus that Eugene saw the pained look in her eyes as she passed by Gothel's cloak. For a moment he thought she'd pick it up and put it on, or hold it, and then burst into tears. But she just took a deep breath, held his hand, and walked away from the only home she'd ever known.

"She told us what happened at the tower," said the queen. She had that motherly look about her. So concerned and ready to be there for him to make the hurting go away.

"I'm fine," said Eugene. He tried to sound like his usual self—arrogant, with an air of… well, arrogance. He didn't feel like his old self.

"It doesn't take a doctor to realize that it isn't just Rapunzel whose whole world changed." The queen took his arm as if he were escorting her back to the palace. He didn't know if she was putting up a front to show the uneasy guards that Eugene was trusted, or that she was trying to keep him balanced. He didn't really give himself a good look after coming back from… well, you know. Was he that frail looking that the slightest gust of wind could push him over?

"We're grateful, Eugene," added the queen. "Very grateful." She looked at him, her eyes big and smiling and welling with tears.

"Can I spend at least one more day with her?" he said sheepishly.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm a wanted thief. Flynn Rider—posters of my face, though they never get my nose right, plastered all over the kingdom. I saved your daughter and brought her home," he looked up at Rapunzel and saw her playing with Pascal and Maximus, the king chortling in delight at her innocence. He looked back at the queen, "but that doesn't change the fact that I…" He couldn't bring himself to say it, and he couldn't understand what that 'it' was. Yes, he's a wanted criminal; yes he's stolen more than just jewels, money, and other material items. He was a liar and a swindler, and he was selfish. He was probably no better than Gothel.

"Eugene," said the queen firmly. "That man on the poster is not you." He opened his mouth to protest, but she raised a hand. "Your name is Eugene Fitzherbert, not Flynn Rider. That man isn't real. But the man who vouched for the safe return of my daughter by risking his life is standing before me instead. And you will stay, right by her side, because it's the least you deserve."

Was that pity? Or… what? He found it a bit hard to swallow that the king and queen believed Rapunzel's story about her magical hair and tears. But they believed in the power of the magic flower, perhaps their daughter obtaining its abilities wouldn't be too far off for them. He breathed a sigh of relief, not realizing how nervous he felt. Perhaps that front of ignorance he pulled off with the guards was just a reflex. Maybe he deluded himself into thinking that he wouldn't mind dying if he just had one more day with Rapunzel.

"Eugene, are you alright?" asked Rapunzel. Her voice was distant. She strode over to him and grabbed his hand.

"I'm fine," he said. Her face was riddled with concern.

"I think after that stew maybe you should go straight to bed," said Rapunzel firmly. Eugene did a double take.

"What, you mean here? At the palace?"

"Yes! You are going to live there with us, right?" She looked at her father, who nodded with a smile. Without hesitation. Eugene couldn't believe it.

His breathing quickened and he was about to spurt out a million different reasons why he couldn't—no, shouldn't—stay at the palace. But then he caught sight of the queen give him that same look she gave him when she told him that his place was to be by Rapunzel's side.

And he had to admit, that kind of life wouldn't be too bad at all. If he got to see her happy, then Eugene was willing to do whatever it took for her to be happy…

Like dying. He groaned in his mind. It seemed it was going to take him more than just a couple hours to get over that. Because even now, Rapunzel's touch still felt a little distant and not as warm as it should be.

Everyone's nitpicking about certain points of the movie-like Rapunzel's upbringing or why no other heir had been chosen, yadda yadda yadda. I like the fact that Eugene died and then came back to life. That has to be all kinds of traumatizing. I'll try to be quick with this one. No promises.