Edit: Polished and re-proofread. Note to self: don't write stuff when you're tired from lollygagging on your grandmother's iPad.
OMG, you guys, my first fanfic, I'm really excited! :D It just really made me wonder how the King and Queen reacted to Eugene escaping from prison, which, to me, left a huge hole in the movie that needed to be filled. Also, I just love how the King and Queen say a thousand words without even saying anything, which proves how awesome Disney was with pulling off expressions. Happens within Tangled. Enjoy, I guess.
It has been eighteen years since that floating lantern was released. That lantern, it once symbolized joy that had sparked in the kingdom, and they did not have the slightest hint that that joy would be so instantaneously taken away from them. Her crown seemed to be the only part of her that had remained; it reminded them that wherever she had gone or whatever had happened to her, she was and forever would be the rightful princess of Corona.
The annual lantern festival was celebrated the night before, and still, after eighteen long, sorrowful years, that could easily escalate to twenty, thirty, or even fifty years, no princess has returned. It was especially hard for the King, who wept just before they would release yet another lantern. It symbolized hope, and it was still alive, yet, simultaneously, it was slowly crumbling. He did not need to say anything, his eyes said it for him. The Queen knew this, she had known it all. She gently placed her hands on his cheeks, and the sweet expression on her face said something like "It's going to be alright," but how could everything be alright? Their daughter was somewhere in the vast unknown, probably alive, dying, dead. They did not know, and the uncertainty was horrifying.
Well, at least something came up that night that brought the King great satisfaction.
This man, Flynn Rider, has long been a nuisance to the kingdom. On that fateful morning when he had successfully stolen the princess's crown, the King finally established that that was his last straw.
Just as the lanterns no longer illuminated the night sky, Rider, at long last, had finally been captured and the crown was restored, like a piece of the lost princess had finally come home. The King decreed the thief's death sentence to avenge the pain he brought from stealing a part of his daughter, thus stealing a part of him.
Rider was to be hanged that bright and sunny morning, and just when the King had thought he had settled his business with the criminal, a Coronian guard burst into the room panic-stricken.
He was not going to like this, not at all...
"Your Majesty, Rider has escaped!"
"What?!" The King boomed, countering the guard's shrill and shaky voice. "You insolent fools! How could you let this happen?"
The guard was trembling as a thought floated into his mind: "What was the golden rule of being a royal guard? Do not, at all costs, make the King angry". Well, now he knew why.
"How could you let this happen..." The King echoed this weakly, breaking down, turning away with his hand over his eyes.
Seeing that he was in a lot of emotional stress, the Queen interrogated the guard, concerned. "What. Happened?"
"Rider was struggling, Your Majesty," the guard replied, collecting his cool, sort of. "Then... then! Out of nowhere, a bunch of thugs helped him escape. And then they ran off. All of them. I don't know... We'll make wanted posters for them for sure. And Rider!" He began using excessive hand gestures at this point, pacing from left to right. "He... err... said something... Yelled! Rather... about a girl... she—she... was in trouble."
The two monarchs met each other's gazes.
"Can you tell us more about the girl?" The King's eyebrows furrowed deep down his forehead.
"I... cannot, I—"
"Your Majesties!" exclaimed yet another guard who swung the doors open with great force. "Rider has escaped—"
"Anything else?" The King just flashed an annoyed look.
"He rode off on Maximus."
"Maximus?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. Bystanders say that a man in a blue vest on a palace horse darted out of the kingdom then into the forest."
"Did he say anything about a girl?"
He hesitated a bit, trying to recall the events in the dungeon. "He did. He was frantic about it, telling us that we didn't understand, that she was in trouble. If Rider's telling the truth, in account of where he was headed, the girl," he used this word loosely, very loosely, "is presumably from outside the kingdom."
The King thought for a moment, head down, glancing from left to right as his fears and hopes began to bombard his mind. Could it... No. It could not have been.
The Queen saw the worrisome expression on his face, and saved him from drowning into deep thought by putting a hand on his shoulder.
"What if it's she?" she cooed.
She was a terribly general word that could refer to any female from anywhere on the block, but the King knew what that she referred to, and frowned.
"No." His voice was shaky, tears welling up in his eyes again.
"But—"
"No." He sighed, taking a deep breath, facing his wife. "It's been eighteen years. She's gone. Why can't we just accept it?"
Her hands were in his. "But for eighteen years we kept our hopes alive. Isn't this why we do this, release a lantern every year?"
"Another wretched lantern year after wretched year!" he scoffed, a tear rolling down his cheek. "The fire in those lanterns may burn, flickering light in the darkness, symbolizing hope. You may have kept your hope alive, and so have the people of Corona, but tell you what? My hope had died a long time ago."
This broke the Queen's heart. She wiped the tear off his face, and whispered to him, "Hey! It's going to be alright. You'll see."
She didn't need to say that, the way she looked at him, those big emerald eyes and her reassuring smile said it all.
"Err... Excuse me, Your Majesties." Guard #2 said, clearing his throat, watching them pull away from each other. "Is there anything we can do to assist you at this moment?"
The Queen was about to speak when the King cut her off. Clearing his throat, he began, "If Rider does return, and with a maiden of eighteen years, interrogate him, and bring him in with the maiden at once."
He glanced at his queen, who smiled warmly at him. His hope was restored.
Time passed, and they could do nothing but wait, looking back and forth at the kingdom they ruled, anxiously and excitedly waiting for their daughter to return. Despite those little pieces fitting perfectly together earlier that morning, something felt off, very off. There was no denying that they had their doubts about one of Corona's greatest thieves bringing their daughter back home. It just did not feel right.
Their hopes were there, indeed, but they were not that high, because the higher the hope, the greater the crash of utter disappointment.
What were the odds that the "girl" was the lost princess, anyway? There was always a damsel in distress somewhere. Anywhere.
The King and Queen were about to find out when Guard #1 opened the door, giving a euphoric nod, his smile wider than ever, still in awe of what he had seen.
They dashed for the balcony. The door was closed, and apprehension rose between the two monarchs, who looked at each other, bracing themselves for whatever was behind. They opened it in unison. Well, there was Rider accompanied by a girl with chopped brunette hair. The two looked at the King and Queen, dazed.
"Go," Eugene, as the girl called Rider, whispered, giving her a gentle push.
The girl, Rapunzel, was nervous. She looked at the Queen, worried, stomach lurching. At some point, she wanted to throw up, and she stood there fearsome of rejection. The King and Queen had lost a blonde child, which she formerly was, she had a 70-feet cascade of golden locks. A story about a girl with magic, glowing, beautiful blonde hair that had possessed the power to heal would lose its power and turn brown when cut off seemed like too much for a rational person to take in. How was she going to explain all that? What worried her more if she would actually be given the chance to explain.
The Queen had different thoughts. When she saw Rapunzel, she thought she had seen a mirror vision of herself. And those eyes, those beautiful big green eyes were so strikingly similar to those of the child she had lost. She gently placed a hand on the girl's face and could not help but smile.
It was her. It was really her. She did not know how she knew, she just did. Was this the result of eighteen years of wishful thinking, jumping so suddenly to conclusions? It probably was, but that did not seem to matter.
Just when Rapunzel smiled back, she pulled her in for a warm embrace, a gesture she waited eighteen empty years for.
Rapunzel, wrapped around her mother's arms, gazed at the King with those eyes. They resembled that of the Queen's, full of wonder in those emerald windows that opened to a kind soul. With that, the King could not help but chuckle contentedly, and joined his wife and his daughter into a warm and loving group hug.
Rider was pulled into the group by the Queen, who pretty much wiped his slate clean in her head. She could not thank him enough.
A few days passed, and the kingdom was still abuzz and gleeful about the return of their lost princess. The King and Queen were out and about celebrating with their citizens. Corona had never been as cheerful in a long time.
Amidst the celebration, he Queen felt her husband tap her on the shoulder, who told her, "You know, Rider may be a renounced thief, but I don't think he really means it."
"And why is that?"
"Because he just stole something from our daughter, again!" He gestured at Rider, whom he had witnessed nonchalantly stealing Rapunzel's crown off her head.
The Queen looked at Rapunzel wide-eyed and a little shocked. Nevertheless, she took it in, and then smirked at the King, arms akimbo. "Are you saying that he just stole her heart?"
The King shook his head, and then the Queen pointed behind him, gesturing him to take a look. He watched his daughter giving Rider a romantic kiss on the lips, and felt like his jaw could drop all the way down to the tip of his shoes.
Finally, he mumbled, "That was not what I was talking about."
If Eugene and Rapunzel dreamed, the King and Queen hoped. Hope you like it. :)