Disclaimer: I only own this plot, though I would love to own Tangled.
MQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQ
Chapter Eight
What? How? Hell, Flynn just wanted to know why Granny was here! Here and not in the woods. It was wrong. Very, very wrong. She wasn't supposed to have followed him! He thought that he had gotten rid of her very successfully! So why in the hell was she here anyway?
But Flynn didn't have a chance to ask that question. Any of them, actually, as Granny was leading him into the kitchen of the small cottage and forced him to sit down at the table before examining him very thoroughly. Said examination included her forcing his head back so that she could look into his eyes and then opening his mouth wide and staring down it before turning around and starting to brew some tea.
"Should have seen this coming. Really should have," she muttered under her breath as she put the water on to boil. "After all…was part of the spell used to bring him back. Idiot!" she cried suddenly, shocking Flynn as she slapped her hand down on the counter very sharply. "I thought about it. Knew it was a possibility. Always was…"
Flynn was tempted to ask what was a possibility, but he didn't dare try. Granny was actually very…scary right now. So, rather than saying anything to her, Flynn simply sat back in his seat and watched her go around the kitchen, looking very upset about something, though Flynn couldn't even begin to guess what it was. She wasn't making much sense, after all.
"Er…" he started to say, but she didn't pay attention to him.
"Used her tears! Should have known that it would do something to him. Stupid!"
Coughing a little nervously, Flynn watched warily as Granny placed a cup of tea very roughly on the table in front of him. For a moment, he didn't want to touch the hot beverage, but he decided that it would be better to rather than let her keep glaring at him as though he had done something wrong. Hastily picking up the cup, he brought it to his lips and sipped at the tea. He didn't show any sign that the hot liquid was scalding his throat, beyond a sharp cough followed by a quick assurance that the tea was really very good.
This didn't seem to change anything about Granny's attitude, but she was much quieter than before. Flynn was grateful for that much. Looking down at his cup of tea, Flynn cleared his throat nervously and began to fiddle with the handle of the cup.
"Er…uh…so…what is it that you did?" he finally asked after a very long silence. "How did you even bring me back to life in the first place?"
Granny fixed him with a dark look for a moment before pulling out her knitting and working furiously at it as she spoke. "Don't think this changes your condition a bit," she snapped sharply. "You're still too weak to visit the Princess."
"But?" Flynn asked. "I feel better than before. Why is that?"
Silence with just the sounds of knitting needles filling the air. "The method I used to bring you back involved a healing potion," Granny said, carefully counting her stitches as she spoke. "Similar to what was used when the queen was ill all those years ago. Just before your Princess was born. Unfortunately, there wasn't another flower like the one used to heal the queen. I had to use something else." She paused for a moment and sighed heavily. "I gathered the tears of the Princess Rapunzel, and used those to make the potion. She was born with the magic of the healing flower in her, but with her hair gone the only way she can heal anyone is through her tears."
Flynn didn't know whether he believed this or not. Of course, he had seen the magic of Rapunzel's hair for himself, so he couldn't disbelieve that part of the story. But…how had she gotten hold of the tears? And why hadn't he been brought back sooner if Rapunzel healed with her tears now? Wouldn't she have been crying when he died if she was so heartbroken about him?
Granny seemed to read all of his thoughts as she continued her knitting. "She was crying when you died," she said with a sigh. "But not in a way that made the tears meet your skin. Her healing still requires contact with skin to be effective. As for how I got the tears…" Here she looked up at Flynn with a rather devilish look in her eyes and smirked at him. "I'm a witch. Never underestimate my ability to do the impossible."
Opening his mouth to argue, Flynn paused as he mulled over this. If-and this was a big If-Granny was a real witch, then why wouldn't she be able to get whatever she needed? Though…it had to be difficult to get tears from a damn Princess!
"Now, though…" Granny continued slowly, staring at her needles as though they would provide an answer to whatever was troubling her. "I am beginning to suspect that using her tears had a different effect than what I originally expected."
There wasn't anything as frightening as a witch admitting that something hadn't gone according to her plan, Flynn decided as he met Granny's gaze with wide eyes. What was she saying exactly? Clearing his throat nervously, he fiddled with the sleeves of his shirt.
"Uh…what…ahem," he cleared his throat again. "What exactly happened that's different?"
"Your weakness," the old woman said. "I didn't expect it to take this long to heal and get better. But now I have begun to suspect that it was because of the method I used to heal you. The Princess' tears had something to do with it."
"…Wha?" Flynn asked dumbly.
"Somehow, using Rapunzel's tears to heal you has bound the two of you together more than you already were," Granny explained. "You need one another to survive."
MQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQ
Rapunzel looked up from where she was sitting across from her father in the library and smiled at the king. She had woken up this morning feeling better than she had in a very long time. Since Eugene's death, actually. Her heart was still aching very painfully, but the pain was much duller than before. Reaching up instinctively, Rapunzel placed a hand over her heart and rubbed at the spot. Pascal looked up at her curiously, but Rapunzel just shook her head in answer.
"Are you feeling all right, Rapunzel?" the king asked in concern, looking up from his own book.
"I'm fine," Rapunzel assured him. "What classes will I have today?"
The king smiled fondly at his daughter as he reached over to place his hand over hers. "The only lesson that you are having today, is learning what a Princess does to escape from all her duties when they get too overwhelming."
Rapunzel gave him a confused look before smiling back at him. "I see…" she said slowly and thoughtfully. "Does that happen a lot?" she asked, looking worried.
"Not that often, I promise," the king promised her with a soft chuckle. "But at first…they seem very overwhelming."
Another worried look crossed Rapunzel's face, but it was soon chased away by the king's kind smile. Letting her usual wide smile cross her face, she looked back at her book and let her eyes linger on each of the pictures. After eighteen years with only three books to read, Rapunzel was devouring the books in the library whenever she could.
The king didn't look back at his own book right away, much more content to simply watch his long-lost daughter. Her face was remarkably expressive, changing from wonder to delight and back in mere moments as her eyes moved over the pages of her book. Though, she wasn't entirely peaceful, the king noticed. Her hand often wandered to her heart to rub at the skin there, though he couldn't begin to guess why. Frowning thoughtfully at this, the king slowly turned his attention back to his own book. Still…he could not rid himself of the thought that something was troubling his daughter.
MQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQMQ
"We need each other to survive?" Flynn repeated, dumbstruck. "What does that even mean?"
"It means that I should have brought you here sooner," Granny said with a sigh. "I should have seen it, really. You only really perked up the day we saw her in the woods, and then you went back to your moping."
Flynn was about to say that he never moped, but Granny cut him off hastily, her eyes flashing dangerously.
"But what's done is done, and I can't fix that," she said with a touch of bitterness. "Still…there may be a way to see just how great this need is."
Standing up and walking over to the window, Granny leaned out and whistled shrilly. Flynn was a little surprised she could whistle like that, but he quickly pushed that aside when Max's head appeared in the window. So the horse had been working with Granny. That no-good two-timing…
"Maximus," Granny said in a no-nonsense tone. "I need you to get Rapunzel to the stables tonight. Think you can do that, you great beast?"
The horse neighed loudly and nodded before pulling his head out of the window, leaving Flynn alone with Granny. Still mad at the horse, and still very confused about everything that was going on around him.
