Title: The Runaway
Rating: K+
Word Count: 1,731
Prompter: Wolfram-and-Hart-Sauron

The Runaway

Eugene Fitzherbert had just about had it with life at the orphanage. He was sick of being poor, he was sick of being hungry and most of all he couldn't stand the injustice. He was mad and he wasn't going to take it anymore. He didn't need them. He didn't need anyone he thought, as he wiped his nose on his mended sleeve. He could take care of himself. He was better off on his own anyway. He wouldn't have to share his cot or his threadbare blanket with anyone anymore.

The tears that were creating trails down his dirty cheeks were blurring his vision and he tripped over the exposed root of a large oak tree. He felt the sting immediately and even though it was dark he could tell he skinned his knees. Eugene sat under the oak tree crying in earnest now as he thought back to the miserable day he'd had.

It wasn't even his fault. Stupid Billy Cohan had pushed him into the girls' lavatory. He didn't know Margret Spencer was taking a bath in there. The girl with red pigtails let out a blood curling scream when their eyes. He certainly didn't want to be there. Blech! Girls were disgusting.

The headmaster was furious with him. The shape of his round head had always reminded Eugene of a tomato, but now he had the coloring to match. As he was being yelled at, Eugene began to wonder if he would see smoke come out of the man's ears. Then he got sent to his room without supper, not that he was wild about the food at the orphanage, but he was really starting to feel the hunger pangs now. That wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was when Margret Spencer had called him a pervert in front of everyone and then one of the more obnoxious kids had realized the word rhymed with his last name, so they began taunting him to a chorus of "Eugene FitzPervert." Ugh! He hated his name. As soon as he could, he was going to change it.

Eugene had dozed off under the oak tree when he heard what sounded like a baby crying. The wails startled him and he pushed himself closer to the bark of the tree trunk. Maybe it was an injured animal. He was in the forest at night; he knew there were no babies in the forest.

Then he heard a cold, mean voice that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

"Hush Rapunzel! Will you stop with the crying. When I get you to the tower I'm going to shut you in the closet until you learn to shut up."

Eugene balled up his fist. The way this woman talked to the baby was cruel and he knew from his books she must be a witch. Only witches were mean to innocent babies. He forgot all about being scared and started following the tall woman wearing a crimson cape. She had an oil lamp in one hand and a baby basket in the other. It wasn't hard following her, the baby was making so much noise he didn't have worry about being detected if he stepped on a twig.

The woman was much too large for Eugene to confront her, but he knew he had to get the baby away from her. She was callous and she said she was going to shut her up in a closet.

Eugene picked up a rock. He'd brought his slingshot with him; he had planned on running away for good and had taken the only worldly possession he could carry. His books were too heavy and they technically belonged to the orphanage. Even though he used them more than anyone else, he wasn't comfortable with the idea of stealing. He was a pretty good aim and he thought if he aimed for her head, he might be able to distract her long enough to take the baby.

Just as he was getting ready to take his aim, the woman sat down on a rock. Sighing exhaustedly, she placed the basket carrying the baby on the ground next to her.

Eugene dropped the sling shot and grabbed the baby. The woman turned around and let out a horrible scream.

"Stop! Thief! Come back here with my flower!"

The woman ran after them, but Eugene was small enough to slide under fallen trees and maneuver his way through or around the bushes.

When he was sure he'd escaped the evil witch's clutches, he took cover behind a large mossy rock so he could catch his breath. He looked down at the bundle in his arms. She had the softest, longest blonde hair he'd ever seen on a baby. The babies at the orphanage were either bald or had short curls, cropped close to their heads. She had a big head and giant green eyes the color of grass which looked up at him with curiosity. Now that they had escaped the witch, she had stopped crying. She gurgled at him in a way that made Eugene laugh.

He had been so preoccupied with saving her from that evil witch, that he hadn't thought about what he would do with her now that he had her. Wasn't that what the headmaster was always yelling at him about? He never thought things through. He always acted on instinct, on impulse and never thought about the consequences. It was exactly this kind of thinking, or lack of thinking, that always landed him in the headmaster's office.

He didn't know what he was going to do with a baby. He thought about heading back and taking her to the orphanage. There were babies like her there and the headmaster would know what to do with her. But the thought of going back to that place made his stomach drop. It was dirty and loud and some of the other kids weren't very nice. He didn't want that for her. She seemed like a nice baby. He couldn't do that to her. He decided that he was going to keep her. He'd never wanted a little sister, so he wasn't keen on the idea of her being one, but he had always wanted a dog. Maybe she would be more like a pet. He would feed her and take care of her and she would keep him company. The idea was starting to grow on him. They would go on adventures together, fight pirates and save damsels in distress, just like in his books.

Eugene looked down at his new sidekick and twisted his young face in disgust when the baby he was carry suddenly stuck one of her small bare feet in her mouth and began sucking on it. He quickly straightened his features when he remembered what the cook always told him. You're going to stay that way if you keep making that face, she would say to him in the lunch line as she scooped up some gruel and plopped it on his plate. Yech! He bet dirt tasted better than that thin slop that passed for food at the orphanage.

Just then a group of soldiers on horseback surrounded him and he protectively clutched the baby closer to him. A man with a gold-plated breastplate and a black mustache that resembled a cleaning brush pointed an accusatory finger at Eugene.

"That boy!" The man said. "He's got the princess."

Eugene rolled his eyes. He knew all about princess. They were in the books he read. Princesses were beautiful and wore crowns and fancy jewels and big, puffy pink dressed and they got rescued a lot by his hero, Flynnagain Rider. "There's no princess here." He explained. "She's just a baby."

But the men wouldn't listen to him. One of them took the baby from him and when he tried to take her back an enormous white horse came round him and picked him up by the scuff of his collar so that he feet were now several inches off the ground.

"Hey! Let me go!" He protested, but no one was paying attention to him, they were all fussing over the baby.

Just then he heard a rustle and saw a green light move behind the bushes; he recognized it as the oil lamp the cruel woman had been carrying. He saw a hand drop the lamp and run into the darkness of the forest.

"Let me go!" He struggled. "Hurry up! The witch is getting away!"

The guards ignored Eugene's pleas as they talked amongst themselves about who should send word to the king that they had found the lost princess and the young boy hung helplessly from the collar of his shirt in the jaws of the great white beast.

Eugene groaned. He realized then that the guards were a bunch of idiots.

In the end, they decided that the Captain would take the princess back to her parents and some guy named Conli would return Eugene to the orphanage.

###

He stayed up late scrubbing the toilets while everyone else had gone to bed. That was the punishment that the headmaster had handed out to him for running away. It didn't matter that he had saved the princess. No one would've believed him anyways. They would think it was another fantastical tale from his favorite book. Stupid Billy Cohan had thumbed his nose and stuck his tongue out at Eugene behind the headmaster's portly back as the old man doled out his sentence. Eugene focused on keeping a stony face, even though he wanted to punch the freckles off of Billy's piggish nose. He wasn't going to cry in front of Billy. Not this time, not anymore. He wasn't going to show anyone how he really felt anymore. It just gave people like Billy fodder to use against him. From now on he was going to keep his emotions close to his vest and not share them with anyone.

As he pushed a mop whose wooden handle had grown slippery and smooth from years of use across the honeycombed floor of the boys' lavatory he stopped for a minute to look outside the window. There, at the very top of the hillside, he saw the castle illuminated by torches. He thought of the baby that he now knew lived inside there and tried to imagine what it would be like living inside those majestic marble walls. He decided right then and there that he would live in a castle when he grew up.

Prompt: On the night Rapunzel is kidnapped, little Eugene runs into a woman and a baby in the forest.

AN1: Poor Little!Eugene really needs a hug in this one. I'm half tempted to write a sequel where they meet as adults in the village square, so Rapunzel can make his life better. Wolfram-and-Hart-Sauron, thank you for the prompt. I loved the story idea and I hope you end up writing a multi-chapter fic about it. I'd love to read your take on it.

AN2: I wrote this pretty quickly so I may make some edits during the week, but I don't think it will be substantive. If anyone else has a writing prompt, please send it along. Thanks!

AN3: Thank you Guest reviewer for pointing out that spelling mistake. See, I fixed it. Also, I love your drunk!Eugene prompt, I hope I can do it justice. *Rubs hands together and grins evilly*