IMPORTANT EDIT! This chapter has also been edited as of 2/23/2012, with a different character and this chapter must be reread if it was read before that date otherwise you will be CONFUSED!

Disclaimer: Still don't own OHC or Tangled!

Chapter 2: Beni Knows Best

A/N: Okay, I have to acknowledge something here… since I changed the character of Gothel to Benibara, it turns out that the whole 'keep Haruhi in the tower' kind of becomes… well, rapey, and quasi-incestuous. I'm sure you all can guess why. But I embraced it, and other than it being a little unsettling if you think about it too hard, it's not particularly off-putting. For example, Haruhi is under no illusions that Benibara is her mother, she knows that she isn't. Anyways, thought I'd throw that out there. Enjoy!

The scene opens, showing Tamaki and the Hitachiin twins sliding down the rooftops of the castle, and then parkouring the shit out of the castle rooftops because parkour is le awesome! They avoid the guards and make it up to a specific tower. Tamaki climbs up to the highest point, staring out over the kingdom. A breeze whips his blonde hair around and his violet eyes glimmer in the reflective sunlight. He nods to the redheaded twins accompanying him.

"Wow! I could get used to a view like this."

"Boss, come on!" Hikaru whines at him as he and Kaoru lift up a trapdoor.

"Hold on… Yep, I'm used to it. Guys, I want a castle!" Tamaki declares, throwing his arms up in the air and tilting his head back to drink in the view properly (and if it just so happens to make him look like some exotic Adonis, well so much the better).

The twins exchange eye rolls and glare at him.

"We do this job, you can buy your own castle," Kaoru points out.

Tamaki favors them with a devastating smile and comes over to the boys, allowing them to lower him into the throne room where Princess Haruhi's tiara sits in a place of honor, waiting for its owner to return. There are several guards nearby, and as Tamaki reaches for the tiara, one of the guards sneezes.

"Ooh! Hay fever?" Tamaki asks him sympathetically, still suspended by a rope from the roof.

"Yeah…" the guard admits with a rueful smile. Then he gets a horrified 'what-the-hell?' look on his face. "Wait!" He spins around and all the other guards turn to look. "Hey, wait!" he shouts.

But Tamaki and the twins are racing across the bridge already, well ahead of their pursuers.

"Can't you picture me in a castle of my own?" Tamaki demands, running a hand through his white-blonde hair as he runs. "Because I certainly can! All the things we've seen, and it's only eight in the morning! Gentlemen, this is a very big day!" he shouts as he fist-pumps and practically leaps through the air, ignoring the rolling eyes of the twins behind him.

The scene changes to the tower out in the woods where Haruhi is putting away her paint supplies.

"This is it!" she squeals. "This is a very big day, Pascal!" She can't help but giggle with excitement. "I'm finally gonna do it! I'm gonna ask her!"

Her head snaps up as she can hear Benibara, calling out in a sing-song voice. "Haruhi! Let down your haaaair!"

"It's time!" Haruhi gasps. Pascal stands at attention in front of her. "I know, I know. Come on." She quickly puts him on the new painting on the wall where he clings, blending in with the paint. "Don't let her see you," she admonishes gently as she covers the painting with a curtain.

"Haruhi?" Benibara calls again. "I'm not getting any younger down here!"

"Coming, Benibara!" Haruhi calls. She wraps her hair around a pulley and sends the entire mass of hair cascading out the window. Benibara loops it and stands on it while Haruhi pulls her up. "Hi!" Haruhi gasps when she finally sees the woman who has raised her, the woman she considers a very dear friend and a loving guardian. "Welcome home, Beni!"

"Oh, Haruhi," Benibara sighs dramatically. "How you manage to do that every single day without fail… It looks exhausting, darling." She steps over and strokes Haruhi's golden hair.

"Oh… heh… It's nothing," Haruhi says with a little shuffling of her feet.

"Then I don't know why it takes so long," Benibara replies, wrapping and arm around Haruhi's shoulder, poking her nose, and laughing her deep throaty laugh. "Darling, I'm just teasing."

Haruhi laughs nervously. "Alright, so, Beni… As you know, tomorrow is a very big day…"

Benibara looks in the mirror, then pulls Haruhi over to her side. "Haruhi, look in that mirror. You know what I see? I see a strong, confident, beautiful young lady… Oh look, you're here too!" She laughs again, squeezing the other girl's shoulders. "I'm just teasing. Stop taking everything so seriously."

Haruhi frowns a little. "Okay, so, Beni, as I was saying, tomorrow is…"

"Haruhi, darling, Benibara is feeling a little run-down. Would you sing for me, dear? Then we'll talk," she says as she checks her hair for signs of gray and her face for evidence of wrinkles. She coughs a little as there is a scratchy quality to her voice, which makes her frown.

"Oh! Of course, Beni!" Haruhi exclaims. She dashes about, putting a chair and a stool in front of the fireplace, shoving a hairbrush into Benibara's hair and quickly sitting them both down in their chairs. Then she starts singing as fast as she can. "Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine…"

"Hey! Wait!" Benibara gasps, looking rather flustered.

Haruhi doesn't even try to slow the pace of her singing. "Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine, heal what has been hurt, change the fate's design, save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine!"

As she sings, her hair glows and Benibara quickly runs the brush through it a couple times before the song ends and there is a noise like an electric shock and Benibara suddenly looks a bit younger, although the last dose of magic hadn't completely worn off yet.

"Haruhi!" Benibara scolds. But she can't quite stop herself from smiling when she realizes that her voice has once again taken on the rich booming quality she prizes.

Haruhi doesn't give her a chance to warm up for a lecture. "So, Beni, earlier I was saying tomorrow is a very big day, and you didn't really respond. So I'm just gonna tell you… It's my birthday! Ta-da!"

Benibara blinks, then a small smile appears on her face. "No, no. Can't be. I distinctly remember… Your birthday was last year."

Haruhi giggles. "That's the funny thing about birthdays… they're kind of an annual thing." She leans forward eagerly. "Beni, I'm turning 18, and I wanted to ask… What I really want for this birthday…" She blushes a little and adds in a much lower tone, "actually, what I wanted for quite a few birthdays now…"

"Haruhi," Benibara says impatiently, "please stop with the mumbling, you know how I feel about the mumbling. Blah, blah-blah, blah, blah… It's very annoying. I'm just teasing," she adds, pinching Haruhi's cheek affectionately. "You're adorable. I love you so much, darling." She plants a quick kiss on Haruhi's forehead, then stands up and starts walking across the room.

Pascal peeks out from behind the curtain and waves a claw encouragingly at Haruhi, who quickly steels herself and blurts out, "I want to see the floating lights!"

Benibara pauses as she reaches for an apple. "The… what?"

"Oh… Well, I was hoping you would take me to see the floating lights." She reaches up to the curtain and shows off her newest painting.

"Oh, you mean the stars," Benibara says pleasantly.

"That's the thing…" Haruhi uses her hair to open the window in the roof, shining light on an astronomy mural on the ceiling. "I've charted stars, and they're always constant. But these…" she gestures back to her painting above the fireplace, "they appear every year on my birthday, Beni. ONLY on my birthday. And I can't help but feel… like they're meant for me."

Benibara stiffens just a little, but she manages to look utterly disinterested to Haruhi's eye, and she walks away from Haruhi, clearly not taking her plea seriously.

"I need to see them, Beni!" Haruhi pleads. "And not just from my window… in person! I have to know what they are," she adds in a meek whisper.

Benibara stops and frowns. "You want to go outside? Why, Haruhi…" She reaches out and shuts the window, hiding the paintings in shadow. "Look at you, as fragile as a flower, still a sapling, just a sprout. You know why we stay up in this tower."

"I know, but…"

"That's right, to keep you safe and sound, dear," Benibara says with a sigh. "I promised your dear mother that I would keep you safe, and the best way to do that is to keep you here with me." Then she starts to sing. "Guess I always knew this day was coming, knew that soon you'd want to leave our nest. Soon, but not yet."

"But…"

"Shh! Trust me, pet," Benibara sings, pressing her finger to Haruhi's lips and letting it linger there longer than was strictly necessary. "Beni… knows best!" With that, she pushes the shutters of the window closed and the entire tower is dark. "Beni knows best, listen to me, lovey, it's a scary world out there."

Haruhi moves around the tower trying to light candles while Benibara puts them back out and grabbing at Haruhi and her hair to frighten the young girl a little.

"Beni knows best, one way or another something will go wrong, I swear!" she sings, catching Haruhi as she trips over her own hair. "Ruffians, thugs, poison ivy, quicksand, cannibals and snakes, the plague!"

"No!" yelps Haruhi.

"Yes. Also large bugs, men with pointy teeth, and stop! No more, you'll just upset me!" Benibara throws herself melodramatically onto a chair with a fake sob. "Darling, I'm here," she adds, scooping up Haruhi from where she was crouched on the floor. "Lovey, I'll protect you. Darling, here's what I suggest… Skip those boys with all their noise! Beni knows best!"

Haruhi continues to try to light up the tower or hide from the terrors of the outside world, but Benibara continues putting out the candles and tormenting the girl with pictures or by grabbing her to frighten her.

"Beni knows best, take it from me, precious, on your own you won't survive. Sloppy, underdressed, immature, clumsy, please, they'll eat you up alive," she sings, poking and prodding at the girl as she points out her supposed flaws, though still lingering on her a bit too long. "Gullible, naïve, positively grubby, ditzy and a bit, well, hmmm… vague. Plus, I believe, getting kinda chubby… I'm just sayin', cuz I wuv you," she adds, pinching the girl's cheeks, then giving her a quick peck on the cheek. "Beni understands. Yes, I'm here to help you. All I have is one request." She pauses dramatically. "Haruhi?"

"Yes?" Haruhi asks meekly.

Benibara glares sternly down at her. "Don't ever ask to leave this tower again."

Haruhi sighs and looks down at her bare feet. "Yes, Beni."

"Oh, I love you very much, dear."

"I love you more."

"I love you most," Benibara murmurs, embracing the girl and kissing her hair. Then she can't resist offering up one more passing bar of the song as she descends out the window from the tower on Haruhi's hair. "Don't forget it, you'll regret it… Beni knows best! Ta-ta! I'll see you in a bit, my flower!" she calls up as she hurries away.

Haruhi waves and stares out the window sadly. "I'll be here…" she mumbles miserably. She unhooks her hair from the pulley and stares longingly out into the woods as her hair flutters a little in the cool breeze.