It was mid-afternoon, and Niklas finally found the opportunity to present his cheerful companion with her birthday present. He pulled Rapunzel out of the way of the masses of people celebrating, and over into the shade of a tree by the entrance to the city. They stood for a moment, enjoying the cool breeze.
"Hey, what's up?" The brunette teen asked him curiously, whilst watching people relaxing on the river bank. He smiled at her, before looking at the blue gift he was holding.
"I, um, I bought you a birthday present- " he thrust the bundled up scarf into her hands, "- I saw it and thought you'd like it, and that it'd suit you, you see." He took a breath and noticed Rapunzel was inspecting the scarf that she had unfolded, and had a happy smile decorating her face.
"It's lovely Niklas, thank you!" She pulled it around her shoulders like a shawl and bounced up onto her tip-toes to give him a hug, the brunette's arms wrapping around his shoulders. He blushed at the contact, but wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her to him. He savoured the hug before Rapunzel started to pull back. Despite only knowing her for a day, he was incredibly fond of her – Rapunzel's bubbly disposition, her green eyes and her amazing smile made it hard for him not to. The younger pulled back far enough to look into his eyes, and he watched the emotions in the green orbs.
Their eyes stayed connected for a few moments, occasionally breaking contact to flit around and examine the others facial features. A few moments more passed, and Niklas was starting to wonder if there was a hint of something in her eyes, a something that he knew was reflected in his. The green eyes quickly flicked to the left of him, towards the forest and widened. Rapunzel abruptly pulled away from Niklas, leaving him off balance. He stumbled. Then Niklas turned to see what had pulled the younger away from him.
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"Arieh!" The brunet looked up from the stream in front of him at the sound of his name.
"Eugene! That was Rapunzel!" He turned to the other man, who had a large grin on his face. Eugene nudged the younger who consequently turned just in time to catch the form that had leapt at him. He wrapped his arms around her and span around, happy to be reunited on their birthday. Just as he put Rapunzel down, another man joined the group. He appeared to be just over 20, with long red hair and grey eyes. And he was tall. Arieh scowled. He didn't like tall people. They made him feel short.
"Who are you?"
Rapunzel, unfazed by Arieh's normal attitude (and thankfully not reacting to the talking thing) answered with her normal cheer. "He's Niklas – he helped me find a room for the night, and has looked after me today!"
Arieh's scowl deepened. That sounded dodgy, and his sister had always been naïve… He stepped towards the stranger. "Look. If you have even touched my sister..."
The redhead blinked with surprise, before stuttering into a defensive speech, having realised what Rapunzel had implied. "No, no, no – I wouldn't do that. I haven't touched her! Well, other than a hug or two… But I would never, I promise! Not that she's not pretty or anything, because she's beautiful!" The man flushed, as did Rapunzel, and just as Arieh was going to press further a hand rested on his shoulder gently.
"Hey, c'mon hot head! It's your eighteenth birthday. Enjoy it." Eugene smiled at him, his thumb rubbing up and down his shoulder. He rolled his eyes at the other man, but nodded. He then looked properly at his twin. She looked healthy and happy. But her hair was considerably shorter. And was brown. Right. It seemed that the silence had allowed Eugene to notice this also.
"So, Blondie, where's the blonde gone?"
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The two siblings spent the day together, dragging round the older men from stall to stall. Eugene had to admit it was cute seeing them together, and now that Rapunzel had brown hair they looked even more alike!
He watched as Blondie (so what if she wasn't blonde, it was still her name!) dragged her protesting brother into the centre of the market place to dance with a smile. The male twin was looking offended at the idea of dancing, but the dark-haired man already knew he'd do it for his twin anyway. Along with Arieh, the green-eyed girl had managed to grab Niklas – a rather nice bloke, to be fair to the guy – and pull him in as well. Not that he argued. He was clearly smitten with the eighteen-year-old already. Well, as smitten as you could be after a day of knowing each other!
A smug grin grew out of the smile on Eugene's face. He had used his crafty thief skills to avoid the demanding girl, and could now watch the brunet male attempt (rather badly) to dance. That grin was still there when Arieh had spotted him and ran over.
"Hide me!"
"And why should I do that?" Eugene raised his eyebrow at the smaller man.
"If you don't I'll hit you! Very hard! In the nose! It'll bleed and look ugly!"
At that, the older man let out a bark-like laugh. "Firstly you wouldn't hit me and secondly I could never be ugly."
"The only reason I haven't hit you yet is that your inevitable complaining about the bruise would be more annoying than you are at the moment. You're inching closer to that not being the case." The other male teased. Then he turned and grabbed Eugene's hand.
"Um, where are we going?" The darker-haired man asked. They were heading towards the dancing, and that was not good. Not good at all.
"Hey, Rapunzel!" Arieh shouted. The brunette girl soon appeared out of the crowd of dancers.
"Arieh! You should come and dance!" She grinned at her brother.
"Actually, I'm quite tired, what with everything that's happened today. But Eugene was just saying that he really wanted to dance too, and said he'd take my place so I could rest!" Rapunzel clapped her hands excitedly before pulling their older guide off into the crowd of dancers. As he passed Arieh, he glared at the eighteen-year-old.
"Traitor." Arieh just smiled innocently.
"You should have hidden me then." He then walked off to sit with the watching townsfolk with a cheerful wave.
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Later that evening, the four of them sat on the edge of the pier, their legs swinging over the edge as they ate some bread and cheese. Rapunzel was talking to Niklas about her dreams of seeing the lanterns, as she now knew they were. Eugene was sat next to Arieh, the silence between them comfortable. The group stayed like that for an hour or so before the red-haired man lead Rapunzel to a space a few meters away to watch some fox cubs play across the water. After some time, the brunet rested his head on the other man's shoulders and sighed.
"I don't want to go back to that tower."
"What about your Mother, and Rapunzel?" Eugene questioned.
"I don't care about Mother. She never wanted nor needed me. I was an inconvenience and she made sure that I knew it. As for Rapunzel, I… I wouldn't want to leave her, but I know she misses our Mother. But either way I have nowhere to go other than back to that place."
Eugene sat in silence for a moment before replying, "You could come with me?" Arieh looked up at him quickly.
"With you? Where?"
"Travelling! I want to go to as many new places as possible before I choose my favourite and settle there."
"…And you'd want me there?" The younger pulled away from the other completely, lifting his legs so he was sat facing Eugene with his legs crossed in front of him. The dark-haired man mirrored his movements so their knees were touching.
"Of course. It wouldn't be half as fun without you. This trip, despite everything that went wrong, has definitely had the most enjoyable company." The older man started playing with Arieh's fingers, moving them about in his hand. The man looked to his twin and sat for a moment, thinking. She turned, saw his gaze and smiled before looking back at the animals. He then fixed his eyes back on Eugene, and grasped the man's fingers properly.
"I… I want that." Eugene's companion stated. The words resulted in a wide and relieved smile forming on the older man's face, which was quickly returned. The smile took Eugene's breath away, which he found really annoying, as it meant he couldn't express what he was feeling properly. Therefore, his only option was to push off the ground and press forward, planting his chapped lips onto the soft ones of the man before him.