Eugene twisted a finger in his ear as he tried to process what Rapunzel was suggesting. "You want to do a slumber party? Okay, great! But Queen Cobra will be there? Not so great. You should just have, you know," He wriggled his fingers at her. "Lady bonding time. I don't know why I need to be there. I don't really mind, you deserve to have your own friends."
"Eugene, she's not that bad and you know it. I just thought it might be kind of fun."
"I'm just not sure how your dad, the king, would feel about me being in your room that late at night." Eugene had a momentary vision of being beheaded, Cassandra cackling as she brought down the axe.
"With Cassandra there, it won't be a problem."
"Oh, Oh, so she's the chaperone!" His face twisted up in agony. "Not sure that's better. I think I'd rather take the execution."
Rapunzel folded her arms, bare foot tapping on the floor. "Do you really hate her that much?"
"Hate? I'm pretty sure she hates me. I just like it better when she's down the hall. Or the other side of the kingdom. Maybe somewhere across the ocean. I hear Arendelle is nice this time of year."
"I'll be between you at all times," Rapunzel suggested, still eager to see them getting along. She knew they were capable of it, when they put their differences aside or when she was in trouble. Rapunzel just wasn't in the mood for the latter.
Sighing in the most dramatic fashion possible, Eugene replied, "I can live with that." After all, most of the time it was impossible to argue with Rapunzel.
Rapunzel threw her arms around Eugene and kissed him soundly. "Yes! It'll be so much fun, you won't know what to do with yourself!"
"I'm sure I can figure out a few things."
Maybe Rapunzel's words were prophetic, but hours later, as the moon rose high in the sky out the window, Eugene's snoring rang in her ear. On her right, Cassandra leaned back against the bed underneath the sheet they'd strung up, and glanced over at them. "Three hours, I'm impressed. It must have been so exhausting, watching you paint and losing at chess. But I have to admit, he's actually pretty good when he lets himself be patient."
Rapunzel laughed, keeping her voice low. "I don't mind." They hadn't yelled or sniped at each other at all, which she'd consider a small victory. "Come here."
Reaching over, she put an arm around Cassandra and pulled her against her. She'd always liked this kind of thing. Eighteen years alone with a mother who was hardly around and passive-aggressive with her affections had left her with a keen need for human contact. And Cassandra always smelled so nice and was so warm. Not for the first time, her mind wandered a little in curiosity. She'd seen Cassandra undress more than a few times, and she was beautiful in every way.
But she'd been more closed off than normal lately, and Rapunzel hadn't forgotten. Resting her cheek against the side of Cassandra's head, she closed her eyes. "Think you're ready to talk about it?"
Cassandra couldn't hear anything over the pounding in her chest, and she wasn't sure she could find the words anyway. Instead, she remained silent, closing her eyes and just focusing on the here and now. And she wondered when this had gotten so hard to ignore. It had been easy, before. And on most days it still was, as long as she kept both herself and Rapunzel busy. But then it would be night, and she'd be alone to reflect. Or she'd be laying next to Rapunzel like a safety blanket, listening to her breathe. Or watching her learn what she needed to learn to one day be Queen.
Cassandra realized that at some point she must have given up the pretense that she wasn't in love.
"Whatever is bothering you, I'm here for you. I'll always be here for you, Cassandra." Rapunzel smiled, and snuggled against her. "You couldn't do anything or say anything to change that."
"You sure about that, Raps?" Cassandra whispered, lifting her face towards her. This was dangerous. This was so incredibly dangerous, like she was standing the edge of an abyss looking down and part of her just wanted to give in and leap.
"Of course."
Rapunzel lifted her hand and a refrain of 'don't touch my face don't touch my face' ran through Cassandra's head right until her cheek was being cupped. She sighed and leaned into it, "What did it feel like, when you realized you were in love with him?"
Blinking, Rapunzel looked taken aback. She'd gotten a lot more cautious about Cassandra and romantic feelings ever since she'd gone a little overboard that one time, so she hadn't expected it to come up so soon. Or possibly ever. That didn't mean she wasn't excited for her, and a little jealous.
Wait, why was she jealous? Rapunzel's brows furrowed. That couldn't possibly be an option.
"Rapunzel?"
"Oh! Ah..well… It kind of happened gradually. Okay so it was really fast but everything was happening so fast, but it was a gradual fast." She absently ran her thumb across Cassandra's cheek. "Warm. It felt warm, and bright and ... Like there's this feeling in your chest, and the first time you feel it the world looks different and new. I look at him and everything feels right with the world. And the world hasn't looked the same since."
"Even when he makes you mad?"
She laughed. "When I'm done being mad, yeah. Even a little bit when I'm mad, which kind of makes me a little more mad. But I can't stay mad at him for long."
Cassandra shook her head. "I can't see you staying mad at anyone for very long. I sure can't stay mad at you for longer than a day."
"That's 'cause you love me." Rapunzel leaned her forehead against Cassandra's. "You know. I try to think about where I'll be in ten years. Or twenty. When I'm queen. And Eugene is there at my side. And so are you."
And she was dying to know what had spurned Cassandra to bring up this subject. "So who is he? Or is this another mission?"
"She is nothing you need to worry about." Cassandra felt dazed, Rapunzel's choice of words felt like a kick to the chest and her response came out completely unedited.
Rapunzel's eyes snapped open, and she pulled her head back to look at Cassandra. "She… oh. Oh. Oh wow. … That's an option?" A whole mountain of things started sliding into place.
Praying for a god to strike her down, Cassandra nodded.
"Okay that's kind of a relief." Rapunzel leaned her head back against the bed, laughing breezily. "Because sometimes I'd wonder. Except for the one time you were undercover you've never showed interest in a guy. But that didn't make any sense, but now it makes total sense and why doesn't anyone ever talk about that?"
"Some people are a little old fashioned," Cassandra pushed some hair out of Rapunzel's face. "After Queen Elsa betrothed herself to a woman, everyone else kind of started changing their opinions and overturning old laws. Corona was the first, but we've always had a close relationship with that kingdom and your mother had been pushing for that change for years."
"...She's my cousin right? Or was it second cousin? I don't remember, only that my mother thought it would be a good first outing away from Corona. " She remembered her time in Arendelle. That had been one interesting coronation.
It had been not long after Cassandra had met Rapunzel. "Her mother and your mother were cousins. So second cousins."
"Yeah, but you'd think I'd have heard someone talking about that."
Cassandra shrugged her shoulder. "I guess when it's the only option that fits me, I pay more attention to it."
Rapunzel had barely gotten to speak to her cousins, and only after all the excitement had passed. Too much had been going on since then for her to pay much attention to the affairs in other countries, which was probably something she needed to work on. "So do I know her? The girl you like. Is she someone in the castle? The town? Country? When do I get to meet her? I promise I won't go all crazy pants on her. Oh, does she know? Have you even kissed?"
"Whoa, slow down there, Raps." Cassandra laid her head on Rapunzel's shoulder. "No, we've never kissed, she doesn't know, and she's never going to know. It's just something I'm going to have to get over. Being her friend is too important to me. Besides, I don't think she'd ever look at me that way."
Rapunzel frowned, and squeezed Cassandra. A knot tightened in her chest and she told herself it was just because she felt for Cassandra. "She's missing out. You're kind and strong and determined and selfless and you're really good with a sword. Who wouldn't fall in love with you?"
She looked at her again, smiling at Cassandra with an almost adoring expression. "If girls were an option for me, I'd totally fall in love with you."
"How do you know we're not?" She couldn't help but issue the challenge. It was stupid and rash, and more Eugene-like then Cassandra would ever admit to any living being. It would be so easy to just kiss her. She'd never know what she would have done next, because Rapunzel kissed her first. Her lips were as soft as she'd imagined them to be, and parted just so against Cassandra's as Rapunzel let out a contented sigh.
Whether it lasted an instant, or an hour, she couldn't say. Cassandra felt that shift Rapunzel had mentioned, like a boulder dislodged from the mountainside in a storm and she failed step two spectacularly. She kissed Rapunzel like she was madly, irrevocably in love with her, and like this was her first, last and only chance to do so. The need shouldn't have surprised her. Deep down, she needed Raps to know.
Rapunzel let the kiss linger, responding joyfully to Cassandra's need. It was different from kissing Eugene in some ways, but not in the important ways. Not in the tightening of her chest or the tingling down to her toes or the way her whole body seemed to buzz. It was at once new and exciting, and yet comfortably the same. Cassandra's hands stroked across her face and cupped her cheeks as Cass kissed her desperately and almost vulnerably, and she slid her hands into Cassandra's hair in turn.
The shift was was like moving from painting with oil to painting with water. Different and yet still so beautiful, Rapunzel loved feeling this way. She pulled away, head swimming and lips buzzing and chest humming with warmth and joy and … Eugene's snoring cut through her like a sword and Rapunzel looked at him, then at Cassandra as warmth turned to guilt.
She got to her feet so fast it threw Eugene to the side, startling him awake in time to see his girlfriend disappear out the door. He watched Cassandra stumble to her feet and out the door in the opposite direction. He rubbed at his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things or if Cassandra had been crying.
Looking around the room, he spotted Pascal on his branch looking about as confused as Eugene felt. "Fall asleep for ten minutes and all hell breaks loose."