Several weeks later

Corona. An island kingdom with It's own autonomy from the states of Italy such as Venice and Milan, two that are constantly at war with one another. Having been founded on a habitable island chain off the Italian coast, the smaller settlement had grown from a tiny village into a sprawling kingdom of several thousand people with It's own barracks, port, navy, famous libraries and such and a huge stone bridge that led to the mainland. At the centre of the kingdom, standing high above the town, was a tall castle where the king and queen had lived by themselves until two new arrivals had joined them. Their long lost princess Rapunzel and her lover Eugene Fitzherbert.

It had been a special time for when Rapunzel had returned back home to the castle kingdom after having been kidnapped shortly after birth by Gothel, a wicked old woman who had wanted to use Rapunzel's hair, as it contained special healing powers passed on from her mother to her, who had gained them after drinking a potion with a magic flower in it, to keep herself young. For eighteen years, she was kept in a tower somewhere in the forest and hidden from the world, Gothel, who passed herself as her mother, telling Rapunzel it was full of bad people who would only use her for her hair.

It was only then on the day before her eighteenth birthday that she met someone from the outside world. A thief named Eugene Fitzherbert, or Flynn Rider as he preferred to be called. He had come here to hide with a satchel crown he had stolen and she had promised to give it back if he took her to the floating lanterns at the kingdom, which were released every year on her birthday to mark her kidnapping. Reluctantly, he had agreed to help, but as the two went on their journey to the kingdom, they began to develop feelings for one another. It was not until after Gothel had managed to find them and bring Rapunzel back to the tower that Rapunzel had learned she was the lost princess of the kingdom. Eugene had come back to free her and had almost died in doing so, but had cut her blonde hair, which had been left to grow very long so it would not lose It's power as it did when it was cut, so as to no longer make her a prisoner of Gothel, who had fallen out of the tower window and turned to dust. Rapunzel had then healed Eugene and he had taken her back to the kingdom where she was reunited with her parents, the lost princess having finally come home.

That had been about ten months ago last August, and four months on from their Valentine's Day romance out on the lake, (A link to my other Tangled story), and they were still madly in love. They were like a couple now and nothing would separate them.

Right now on a perfect and warm June morning, Rapunzel, a young woman with bright green eyes, short brown hair in a messy crop on her head and was dressed in a kind of dark pinkish dress, was in one of the town's courtyards, playing a game of hide and seek with several of the young girls. At the moment she was it and she had a blindfold around her eyes. The other girls were hiding near the fountain in the middle of the courtyard, trying to laugh quietly as they watched Rapunzel stumble around, her arms out in front of her like some kind of unwrapped mummy as she tried to find them.

"I'll find you girls," she said as she began to move towards the fountain. She other four girls giggled and began to move back as quietly, and carefully so as not to fall into the fountain, as they could. Rapunzel could hear them and she used her ears as her eyes to find one of the girls.

"I can hear you," she warned, a smile forming on her lips, enjoying this game. "I have a feeling I'll catch one of you pretty soon,"

The other girls began to split in two groups, one moving slightly away from the fountain and the other around the side of it, trying to surprise her. Unfortunately, it did not work as Rapunzel, without any warning, suddenly spun round and grabbed the girl, a short eight year old with black hair and blue eyes and dressed in a kind of cream coloured dress, behind her on the shoulders. They all laughed as Rapunzel lifted up her blindfold.

"Found you," she giggled and began to undo her blindfold.

Nearby on one of the streets, leaning against a house, a young man was watching the girls have fun. He was about twenty six and had short brown hair and a small beard and light brown eyes. He was dressed in dark cream coloured trousers and a white top with brown boots. His name was Eugene Fitzherbert, Rapunzel's saviour and lover. He was the one who had brought her back to the kingdom and reunited her with her parents. From that, he had finally turned his character around and no longer became a thief that he had been for so long. Though it still did leave a mark on his character, the kingdom was grateful to him for returning their princess after so long of her not being here.

As he leant against the side of the house, he stared love drunk at her. She truly was a beautiful woman, and not only beautiful but kind, caring, fun and a real joy to be around. She was always making someone laugh or smile and it was really hard not to adore her as a loving princess of the kingdom. Her kindness had gone further than ever when, after realising that she could heal people, she had given some of her tears to the hospital in the kingdom, allowing them to cure anyone with an illness by simply putting a tiny drop of one of her tears, which were kept in glass vials, in the mouth of a sick person and they would be healed. They had even tried it on the recent new-borns and it had proved successful in preventing them from getting ill. It was official. She was really helping the kingdom she loved so much and everyone truly loved her for it. Though the only ones who stood out among the entire town in loving her were Eugene, her parents and…

A loud squeak on Eugene's shoulder made him look down to see a pair of eyes staring back up at him. A dark green outline was visible on his jacket. Then, it began to turn light green and took the form of a small chameleon. And of course, Pascal, Rapunzel's only friend for most of her time in the tower and a tough one as well.

"Hey Pascal," Eugene greeted him, who replied with a squeak, before looking back at Rapunzel and watching her as she and other girls, who she had by the hands, were quietly sneaking around the black haired girl with the blindfold. Pascal gave a kind of light purr, which made Eugene look at him questionably. "What?" he asked and Pascal responded by using his finger to point at his eyes and then pointed at Eugene and then at Rapunzel and then made a heart shape using his fingers, all with a slight smile on his face. Altogether, it meant to say: You're staring lovingly at her!

"No, I'm not!" Eugene replied quickly, going a little red and Pascal rolled his eyes as if to say: Sure you're not. Eugene shot him an annoyed look. He hated it when Pascal teased him.

"Hey, Eugene," Rapunzel called and he and Pascal looked over at her. The black haired girl had caught her and had asked Rapunzel if Eugene could join in. The group stared at him, Rapunzel holding up the blindfold. "Come on, come join us," she offered.

Eugene looked at Pascal, who raised an eyebrow with a smile as if to say: Well go on, lover boy. Eugene shot him another annoyed look but decided to agree.

"Alright," he replied walking over to them.

As he tied on blindfold and tried to search his way around the courtyard, Rapunzel, who had taken Pascal to make sure he was not going to help in any way, and the girls giggled as they crept around him, trying to make sure he did not catch them. A few bystanders began to notice the game and began to giggle along with them as they watched Eugene fail at trying to catch one of the girls, almost falling over.

Watching this game from a nearby street was a tall man with green eyes, a small trimmed moustache and short brown hair that was barely visible under his gold helmet. He had a kind of gold coloured armour on around his torso and red armour sleeves and legs with boots on his feet. His helmet was a kind of point at the top, signalling he was a high rank in the Corona guard army they had here in the kingdom. In fact he was the captain of it. He leant against the side of small tavern building, just a few feet in front of the door, his green eyes staring with dislike at Eugene, watching him enjoying himself with the girls in the courtyard.

If there was one thing he did not like about the princess being brought back, it was that she had brought back that villain with her. Eugene had been a nuisance to the kingdom many times long before the princess had returned; stealing from within it or from people it had good relations with, giving those around Corona a sign that it could do nothing against a simple common thief. To add to that, it had been the captain who had promised to bring Eugene in and have him hanged. Now, however, he was no longer able to do that and that was something he really did not like at all and that angered him deeply, and it only increased more when he had learned that Eugene and Rapunzel, though they did not know who she was at the time, had been spotted in an old mine tunnel by several of his soldiers. They had managed to corner them until they escaped and disappeared somewhere in the canyon the mine had been built in.

"Everything alright, captain?" a voice asked.

The captain looked over his shoulder to see a younger soldier with blue eyes and blonde hair and dressed in the same armour as him, though his helmet had a flat top to it, walking over to him.

"Oh, no not really, soldier," the captain replied lowly, staring back at Eugene, his arms folded and clutching his arms tightly as if trying to break them. The soldier, from looking at his captain towards Eugene, immediately knew what was wrong with him.

"Sir, if I may, he is not a bad person anymore," he said.

The captain smirked. "'Not a bad person', he says," he muttered shaking his head in disbelief. "Idiot!" he growled. "I never have liked that Rider!" he hissed.

The soldier sighed and watched as Eugene almost fell over and struggled to desperately keep his balance. Then, with a loud splash, he fell into the fountain. Rapunzel and the girls rushed over to see if he was okay. Thankfully, he rose up and lifted his blindfold, water running down his face and said he was okay. The soldier chuckled.

"Well, he's doing a good job in cheering up Rapunzel," he said.

"And he would do the same for me if he smacked his head on the bottom of the fountain," the captain muttered, watching with dislike as Rapunzel helped the now soaking wet Eugene out of the fountain.
The captain sighed. "Alright, back to the barracks, soldier," he ordered.

The soldier clunked his heels together and saluted with a: "Yes sir," and turned and walked back up the street towards the castle. The captain went to follow but could not help halting and looking over his shoulder at Eugene, glaring with anger and pure hatred at him.

"One day, I'll get you for what you've done, Rider," he growled under his breath and walked up the street towards the castle.