Morning sunshine was gently caressing Rapunzel's eyelids. It was like warm tongue licking her over closed eyes.

"Umm..." She murmured. Maybe she forgot to close the curtains last night. 'No, wait...' she thought lazily. She did not forget. She just didn't. Just because she did not want to put her hands on the dirty cloth. Everything was unhygienic in this small flat, in fact. Dried slimes incrusted on the sink of the small kitchen. And leather sofa that had been torn apart. And stained wall papers. And windows that had not been washed for years, that blocked the view of parking lot with full of flivvers outside. Not that she was complaining, because she was always grateful about where she was now. Anywhere was better but her mothers' place. But it would have been better if she could see the snow-piled parking lot. Layers of pure and white snow made junks look beautiful, even though they were junks.

It was strange that she had been living her whole life where more than half of the year was covered with snow, and yet she was not tired of seeing it. It made her imagine as if she was in a fairy tale.

It was funny that above all stories she read, her favorite were still old fairy tales. All too cliche and too candy sweet for a girl locked up in a dreadful reality. Yet, those cheesy tales were the only thing she could cling onto among brainless giggly women and horny men running dirty hands all over them.

It was her asylum. It made her feel loads better when she was daydreaming. Dreaming about all those unrealistic, childish stories and wanting them to be true. Wanting the magic and fairies to be true.

And she was quite sure that one of the fairies was real.

Real as real and solid. A real figure, actually, not a delusional one, no matter what Eugene said about him.

She was thinking about him when she heard a large snoring. Rapunzel groaned, feeling her last remaining sleep go away. She was pretty much enjoying herself being half awake, half not.

"Eugene..."

After half an hour of dawdling in bed, she finally opened her eyes.

The first thing that got into her sight was the blurry sunshine coming through the dirty window. Then she turned to the clock on the wall.

The longer hand was pointing somewhere between ten and eleven.

So it was not that morning after all.

Rapunzel wrapped the comforter around her shoulder and slowly walked out of the bed. She felt like a princess wearing a dress with long cape as the end of the comforter brushed against the floor. It was all silly, extension of early thoughts about fairy tales, but it was a pretty fresh opening for a day that she couldn't stop acting silly.

That was why Rapunzel was twirling on her tiptoes when she tripped on the blancket and nearly collapsed. She stumbled out from the room where she was sleeping but managed to stay on foot.

It was a pretty lousy sight and she was glad to see that Eugene was still sleeping. She would have blushed if he saw it.

However, she was blushing nonetheless, but for an entire different reason. Eugene's morning wood was clear under his leather pants. She was not really fond of those man-things on men, even though she had seen plenty of chunk of meat swinging between their legs when she was hiding under the bed once.

"Eww, think I'm going to puke." She shouldn't have thought about that one terrible night when she had to try so hard to close her eyes and ears tight not to see and hear all disgusting things.

"...huh?"

Rapunzel quickly turned her face away from Eugene's pants and mumbled, "morning?"

"Uh, what, blondie, what the-" Eugene turned his half-awake eyes to where she was previously watching. When he realized his hardness, Eugene nearly jumped in surprise and fell from the sofa.

"You drank," she simply said as she could smell alcohol from him, and he nodded.

Hearing him groan in pain on the floor, she lifted her eyes from down her toe and slowly said, "You know, you can... you can bring women home if you need."

"What was that?" He was still groaning from falling off the sofa and half listening to her. "You can bring hookers if you need to satisfy your sexual desire." Now she was speaking up.

"WHAT?"

Eugene's eyes nearly popped out of his face but she merely shrugged. Her facial expression was blank and it did not reveal any sign of distaste, fear, or judgment. After a few seconds of examining her face and her blanket-covered frame, which was rather big, since the comforter was thick, he stared back her eyes.

She was not moving an inch from where she was standing.

"You..." he drew a deep breath and continued, "you really shouldn't be saying as if you don't give a fuck."

Rapunzel bit her lower lip but she quickly let go of it. "I don't mind."

He frowned.

"You know I'd feel guilty."

"You really don't have to."

"But I will eventually. So drop this now, okay?"

She said nothing but nodded. Eugene once told her that it is not abnormal to develop any trauma if anyone was in her shoes but she hated to be treated like a victim. Eugene was not an assaulter and she was not a victim. He wasn't the cause of her past. So she felt sick whenever Eugene tried to say that he was sorry but she knew that he was being nice to her.

After a few moment of awkward silence, it was Eugene who broke it.

"So you came home safe."

Smiling a little, she turned her eyes to see that now he was sitting up, leaning on the bottom of the couch. "Yup. Safe and sound." He lifted his thumb up.

"Good. Where's the money?" She pointed the kitchen table with her chin A wad of crumpled bucks was neatly put on it. "Aren't I professional?" Rapunzel asked in a joking way. "Sure are," Eugene chuckled as he scratched his forehead and added, "impressive."

So she was feeling good about doing her work properly and thinking of what she was going to do rest of the day when she heard Eugene say more. "You keep half."

Rapunzel narrowed her eyes. "What?"

"You heard me."

"But I-" Eugene cut her off.

"You owe me nothing. How many times do I have to say that?" She scowled and had her arms crossed to express that she was pissed off by his comment.

"I am not living off you. And you do know that you owe me nothing, don't you?"

"Of course, I know! How could I possibly owe you when I am sharing my flat with you?" Eugene sighed when she still seem unconvinced as before.

"Blondie, I am just giving a fair share to my colleague. Half of what you earned last night would be enough to pay your rent."

The comforter which was dangling from her shoulder fell off since her hands were no more holding onto it. Stir of dust was followed by a dull thud but Rapunzel was still. She glared at Eugene for long enough before she quietly spat out, "Don't you dare to pity me."

"Never."

She did not let go of her angry face yet, so Eugene said in a singing voice. "Just a fair share."

Seeing her loosen her face, he gave a sigh of relief and yawned. Eyes half closed, he murmured, "For your first earning, you should bring us some hot, fresh donut."

"Oh... okay... from where?" she asked absent-mindedly.

"Cafe, bakery, wherever donut is." Was that not obvious? She felt dumb.

Picking her comforter up, she asked Eugene whose eyes were now completely closed, "Going with me?" even though she was almost sure of his answer.

"Nah," he replied as she thought. Crawling back onto the sofa, he murmured, "I need more sleep."

So she left him there and went back to her room to take a quick shower and get changed.

When she got out of her room in mismatching layers of clothes and an old, outdated pink coat on top of it(she was planning on buying some cheap, warm and decent - less girlie second-hand clothes sooner or later) Eugene sounded fully asleep. However, he wasn't, apparently, since he spoke to her when she was reaching for the doorknob and nearly had her heart jump out of where it should be.

"Hey, Rapunzel."

She swallowed all the cursing words inwardly and managed to reply. "What." Actually, it came out calmer than she expected.

"That's not love."

Rapunzel raised her eyebrows at his out-of-blue comment.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Telling me to have sex with others if I wanted."

She stepped back to face Eugene, but his eyes were shut tight.

"You'll realize when you meet someone."

She rolled her eyes. 'Like that's ever going to happen.' But again, she said nothing, knowing that he was being nice to her as always.

All of this is a part of the development of the characters and the back story, AND Jackunzel will eventually meet AND it will not be far. I promise!

Plus, ImagineDragonz7, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS AND I APPRECIATE YOUR KIND WORDS. I hope I don't let you down but feel no pressure to write a review!