A/N: This is where things get interesting? I sort of had a hard time expressing how they were feeling, and I'm not really sure what's going to happen next, but I hope it enjoy it.
Flynn woke up early the next morning with a headache. It took him a little while to remember where he was. This was a familiar feeling for the days when he accidentally fell asleep with a girl before he could leave. He yawned and looked over at the window in the room to see a pale light coming through the curtains. It must have been very early, because by the looks of it, the sun was just starting to come out.
He looked over on his other side and he saw Rapunzel, still very asleep. She wasn't facing him, and he could see just how messed up her hair was right now. How many times did they do it last night? He honestly didn't remember. The last bit of the night was kind of blurry. But he was certain he had enjoyed it.
He smiled a little, thinking about her, until it set in that it was morning.
Flynn Rider didn't do morning afters.
Usually he would leave sometime during the night, after the girl had fallen asleep. Or he would part ways with her before she even went to sleep, giving her a thank you and maybe a goodbye kiss. This was one of the unfortunate situations where he had waited too long, and he would just have to hope to be able to sneak out.
He got up from the bed and found his clothes, which were thrown rather carelessly around the room. Trying not to make too much noise, he got dressed and collected anything of his that he saw laying around. Rapunzel had stirred slightly when he got up, but he dismissed this. He barely glanced back at her as he went to the door, opening it. He had done this so many times before it really wasn't a big deal. It would be kind of sad to leave her, though.
Rapunzel had heard the sound of the door closing and slowly opened her eyes, noticing that Flynn was no longer in bed with her. That wasn't right. He had been there just a few hours ago. She pressed her hand to her forehead, not liking the feeling in her head. Had that been him leaving?
She scrambled out of bed and quickly pulled her clothes on, rushing to the door. She wanted to know where he was. He was her first friend she had made since she left the tower and she wasn't just going to let him walk on her.
Rapunzel walked out into the hall and looked around. She turned a corner and found Flynn heading towards the stairs that led to the first level and the bar. "Hey!" she called.
Flynn felt his heart freeze up and came to stop, glancing behind him. He had never been caught walking out before. What was he supposed to do? To keep going would make him more of an asshole than he already was…
"Where are you going?" Rapunzel asked, feeling tears form in her eyes. She really hoped he wouldn't notice that. She shouldn't have been so upset about this anyway, she just didn't understand why he would want to leave her. She thought he liked her…
He hesitated. "Well I, uh, I should really get going…" he said awkwardly.
Rapunzel tried to understand this but she just couldn't. She didn't know much about the way people acted towards each other. Was it normal for people to leave each other like this? It didn't seem logical. "But, I…I thought we had something together…something special…" She had never really given much thought about romance, but she knew what happened last night couldn't have not been important.
"Well, I…" Flynn paused. She actually thought they had something more together than an innocent fling? What was wrong with this girl? What was wrong with him? He shouldn't have made her think that. God, why hadn't he realized what he was doing to her before he did it?
Rapunzel stayed where she was, looking down and wiping a few tears away with her sleeve. She didn't want to cry in front of him. He didn't even care about her.
Overwhelmed with guilt, he turned around and started towards her. "Hey, do you want me to stay for a little while? Because I guess I could…" he said softly, looking at her and taking one of her hands in his. He didn't normally make contact with a girl unless he was trying to win her over, which apparently he had already done, perhaps more than he had wanted. Bottom line was he was worried about her. She didn't seem very stable and as heartless as he was, he couldn't just leave her without knowing she would be okay.
"Um, if you…want to…it doesn't really matter, I guess," Rapunzel muttered. She wasn't really sure what she wanted. She didn't want him to leave, but she hadn't thought about the future yet. It would be nice to have a friend to keep her company, though. She had been alone ever since she left her tower. She always felt so confused and without support.
"Okay," Flynn said, frowning because he could tell that she was avoiding look at him. "Just for a bit, though." He was definitely not committing himself to anything. She should realize just how unusual it was for him to make a gesture like this. It was not common practice for Flynn Rider to care about the well being of his lovers. At least, not like this.
Rapunzel nodded slowly. She felt so unbelievably stupid for getting the wrong impression of him, and now making him stay, which he probably didn't even want. She felt a bit better when he leaned down to kiss her forehead, but she still wasn't sure. She didn't have enough experience with people to tell how they were really feeling.
They stayed in the hallway for a long time before Flynn finally dropped her hand. He hated morning afters in general, but he'd never had one quite like this. What was he supposed to do? Suggesting more sex did not seem like the right thing at the moment. "How are you feeling?" He guessed that was a good thing to ask.
Rapunzel sniffled a bit and sighed, wiping away those couple of tears that were starting to dry up. "I'm okay, I guess." Honestly, she felt terrible. She was confused and her head hurt and it was killing her that she didn't really understand what had happened last night. But he didn't need to know that.
"You hungry at all?" he asked.
"I suppose I am, a little," Rapunzel said.
"I'm sure we can get something to eat, if you want to," Flynn said, thinking about how this was going to go down. Breakfast was the normal thing for couples to do in the morning, right? He usually skipped it. It's not like he had enough money to spend on three meals a day, anyway. He wasted all of his extra cash on drinks, usually.
Rapunzel nodded. "Yeah, that would be good, actually." She figured she might feel better once she had eaten.
"Come on then," Flynn said, starting to walk down towards the stairs. He didn't look behind him but she was following very close behind him anyway. He awkwardly crossed his arms over his chest, because they weren't a couple, and he wasn't going to do something ridiculous like hold her hand, even if he was taking care of her at least for today.
It was way too early for the bar to be open, and as he led her outside and looked around at the street, he wasn't quite sure if anything would be open. It was still pretty dark out, really, and there was no one around. He would just have to search for a restaurant that would let them in.
He found one soon enough, and she followed him inside the small, yet somewhat appealing looking, restaurant, which was almost completely empty. The sun was coming out more now so Flynn hoped more people would show up. He didn't much favor people overhearing his conversations.
They sat down at a table next to window and ordered two stacks of pancakes. He wasn't quite what to say to her. "Do you want coffee?"
Rapunzel shook her head. "Mother says I'm too hyper to have – I mean, no." Stupid, stupid. She wasn't supposed to be thinking about her old life anymore.
Flynn shrugged a bit as the waitress bought his coffee a few minutes later. He was hoping it might help wake him up. Probably not. "So, uh, I guess we didn't get much sleep last night," he started, sipping his drink.
"No, I don't really think so," Rapunzel said, blushing slightly and looking away. She couldn't exactly remember how late it was when they went to bed. "I just remember a lot of kissing and cuddling and…"
"Fucking," Flynn supplied.
"Uh, sure," Rapunzel said, raising an eyebrow because she was not very familiar with that term. He sure did like to swear a lot, though.
"Eat up, baby," he said as their pancakes were set down in front of him. Rapunzel dug into hers with more excitement than he deemed necessary. She hadn't had anything to eat last night, after all. The food gave Flynn an excuse not to talk to her, which was nice.
"Hmm, this is really good," Rapunzel said, feeling more like herself. "I used to make these a lot, actually."
"Oh, cool," Flynn said. He honestly didn't give a damn about her choice of breakfast item. At least she wasn't crying though… "I guess they're pretty good."
Rapunzel nodded and smiled as they both finished their meals. She sat up straighter as she realized something. "Oh, I…don't really have any money." She had a tiny bit back in the room, but that was hardly anything, and she couldn't get to it right now anyway.
"Well, I'll pay for you," Flynn said. To be truthful, he didn't have very much money either. He usually just stole whatever he wanted. But he pretended like this was cool with him.
"Thank you," Rapunzel said, smiling sheepishly and feeling guilty again.
"No problem," he muttered, rolling his eyes and taking some money out of his pocket.
Rapunzel sighed and frowned a bit. Maybe she should have left him leave. He certainly seemed to like her last night, but now she wasn't so sure… "Okay. Still thank you, though."
"It's fine, babe," he said, shrugging a bit. He sighed, still thinking about what to do. He wanted to devise a plan for him to leave, but he couldn't do that after seeing how helpless she was. Maybe he should enjoy his time with her. It would only be a little while. "Let's go back to the inn, huh?"
Rapunzel nodded, because she felt rather tired and weary and resting might be a good idea. She stood up and straightened out her dress, which she realized didn't look quite right since she'd been in such a rush to get it on.
After leaving the correct amount of money on the table, Flynn stood up and kissed her cheek. Rapunzel didn't quite understand this. He kept giving her mixed signals. Figuring she would just have to wait and see, she smiled and gave him a kiss before leading him outside.