Chapter 10: L.O.V.E.

They stayed like that for a long time, just laying beside each other on the floor, enjoying each other´s presence. As the sun set and the stars began their nightly route over the sky, accompanied by only the moon, shadows began to move in the hall, but there was no reason to be afraid, as they knew they had each other, and so they drifted away into sleep softly. As the sun rose above opposite side of the valley, they awoke, sat up, and looked each other in the eye. They smiled at each other.

Then the night was over, and the magic of the moment vanished.

'So, what are we going to do now?', Rapunzel asked uneasily. 'My mother won´t like it if she finds out I´ve met you.' Jack was enthusiastic: 'So let´s just elope! I can show you the world! Together, we can do anything!' Rapunzel seemed unsure. 'I don´t know. I´m not sure if I´m ready for this yet. It seems like such a huge decision.' Jack seemed to think for a second, then said: There´s no need to make it yet. I´ve literally got all the time in the world' He put a hand on her shoulder. 'Obviously, I would prefer to not wait another quarter millennium, but there´s no need to hurry.' Rapunzel giggled. Then Jack continued: 'We´ve got more urgent issues to worry about anyways.' Rapunzel seemed confused: 'What do you mean? Is my mother coming?' - 'No.' She let out a relieved sigh. 'Then what do you mean?' - 'Well, for example, it would be nice if I could finally get some proper underpants.' - 'Oh.'

While Jack was exploring the surroundings for a place to steal underpants from, Rapunzel began washing his clothes. They looked well-worn. And from a closer point of view, they were quite smelly. Did he ever change his clothes? She also noticed that yes, he had actually peed himself while he was tied up. But she guessed that was understandable. After more than 30 hours of writhing around in delirium, that would have probably happened to anyone. Especially to someone who is scared of being alone in the dark. There was so much she still didn´t know about Jack. But deep inside, she knew that he was her ticket to the outside world. And besides that, he wasn´t all that bad. From what she could tell, he was pretty desperate, but perhaps he had his reasons. Besides, he was kind of cute. So what was holding her back?

While he was looking for new clothes, Jack´s thoughts raced. He had realized that he no longer just wanted to get to know Rapunzel because he was curious. There was more. Something he couldn´t quite describe. But it created a fuzzy feeling inside his stomach and put a happy smile on his face. So it had to be something good. All of a sudden, the world didn´t look as grey and awful as it usually looked to him anymore. It was filled with color and hope. As he browsed through several clothes stores, a plan formed inside his mind...

A few hours later, Jack arrived at the tower with new clothes. He was now wearing a light, blue hooded jacket with a white shirt under it, combined with brown-ish jeans. He threw Rapunzel´s clothes over the handrail of the stairs leading down to the hall and politely asked: 'May I have your attention?' Rapunzel giggled and turned around. Jack cleared his throat. Then, he began singing with a deep and trying-to-be-seductive voice as he walked down the stairs into the hall:

L is for the way you look at me
O is for the only one I see
V is very, very extraordinary
E is even more than anyone that you adore can...
LOVE is all that I can give to you
LOVE is more than just a game for two
Two in love can make it
Take my heart and please don´t break it -
Love was made for me and you

He had arrived the bottom of the stairs and was now swirling around in dancing posture. Rapunzel, with a mischievous smile on her face, commented: 'I´m not sure you hit a single note during that whole thing'. Jack stopped and threw his arms into the air. 'Agh!' He pouted. 'Couldn´t you please at least act like you were trying to appreciate my feeble attempt at being romantic?' - 'I do, I do. That was very cute.' Jack seemed reconciled immediately. 'You up for a dance?', he asked with big eyes. Rapunzel blushed. 'I can't dance...' - 'Of course you can!' Jack put his right hand on her back and held her left hand up with his. 'Now your left hand on my shoulder... All right! Now listen, it´s really easy: Two slow steps, then two fast ones. Three, Four!' Coyly, Rapunzel started moving while Jack yanked her around clumsily. After a while, their movements became more and more fluent. Jack kept singing the rhythm: 'Slooow, slooow, quickquick, slooow, slooow, quickquick...'. When he was satisfied with Rapunzel´s newly acquired dancing skills, he paused and said: 'You´re doing great! Now let´s try to add some more swirling. You replace every second set of slow steps with long, swaying back-and-forth ones while turning around. Got that?' Rapunzel didn´t seem very confident at first, and she did stumble a few times, but Jack always caught her gallantly. It didn´t take long until she had the steps down pat.

And so, they swirled around the hall and swirled and swirled. After a while, Rapunzel started to join in Jack´s singing. Cautiously at first, then with more and more confidence. She didn´t know how long they had been dancing when they stopped and let themselves fall on the fluffy carpet. 'That was amazing!', she exclaimed. 'Where did you learn that?' - 'Well, 250 years of solitude leave you plenty of time to learn a lot of things... and in my case, dancing was one of them', Jack said with a smile on his face. Then, he added: 'Besides, I´m far from being a good dancer. I only know some basic stuff.' Rapunzel just giggled.

The days went on. Slowly, they got to know each other´s worlds. Jack taught Rapunzel and Rapunzel taught Jack - and though he wasn´t exactly one to care for literature and science much, he tried his best to keep up with what she was trying to explain to him. In the evenings, they danced and sang and wrestled. They were nearly able to forget their unfortunate start. Nearly, but never completely.

And they also couldn´t forget that their love was a forbidden one. They were reminded every time Rapunzel´s mother came home and Jack had to hide while Rapunzel tried to act normal around her mother. Slowly, they both realized they couldn´t go on this way. One day, Rapunzel´s mother would notice the change in Rapunzel´s character, and nobody could foresee how she would react. They had to make a change.

And so, the day that had to come sooner or later, arrived. Surprisingly, it was the usually carefree Jack who asked Rapunzel for a serious conversation about their future. He stated that he was neither able nor willing to go on like this, living from day to day and not knowing what would happen the next one. Spending whole days i hiding, impatiently waiting for Rapunzel´s mother to leave. He was neglecting his cheer-bringing duties, and while he was confident that nobody would notice because everybody just ignored him anyways, he wanted security. A perspective for the future.

After that, Rapunzel indulged in deep thought for a long time. If she was to go with Jack, her mother would surely never forgive her. She would never be able to visit her again. On the other hand, she didn´t think she would really want to. All her mother had done for her in the past was lock her up in this tower and exploit her powers. There was nothing that really held her here. But what if her mother would track them? She, too, had magic powers, and Rapunzel wasn´t sure whether she had a way of finding out where she and Jack were hiding...

Finally, she made a decision: She would go with Jack. After years of caution, it was time to finally take a risk.

[To be continued in Chapter 11: 'Voyage'. Lyrics taken from 'L.O.V.E.' by The BossHoss feat. Nena. Please don´t forget to review!]