SHINING STAR

-MichelleTheVampGirl

Chapter 13: Mason's confession.

I pushed open the large ornate door, watching as everyone turned to face me with a range of expressions crossing their faces. There was anger, definitely. Like I didn't belong, and in all honesty I knew I didn't. But those people weren't the ones who mattered. There was only one face I wanted to see, and it was her reaction the truly mattered.

"Rapunzel..." I whispered her name, and saw her stop walking, her back to me, about halfway down the aisle. I saw her turn around slowly, her beautiful green eyes round with noticeable panic. I wanted to know what was going on in her head. I needed to know how she felt about me being there.

She looked to be in a daze, her eyes frantically sweeping over my body, as though to determine whether or not I was really there. I couldn't decide, with the blank look on her face as though her features had been frozen in a mask of shock, whether or not she was happy I was there, or just as disgusted as some of the wedding guests. I called her name again, my voice low and pleading. I tried to put all of my feelings of love for her into that one word, and watched her rosy lips part and the most beautiful sound came out.

She spoke my name.

My real name.

I had left her, telling her I was Flynn Rider, but yet she was still calling me Eugene, her voice echoing my longing. Despite everything that I must have put her through, she was still in love with me, just like I was still very much in love with her. I couldn't help the smile that tugged at my lips, pure joy radiating from my heart. I walked towards her, aware of how each step shook uneasily beneath me, my legs not fully recovered from the journey, but I did not care. I wanted to run down the aisle to her, but somehow, between us, the rest of the church disappeared. I could feel the bond that tethered me to Rapunzel, like a silvery thread that meant I was as much a part of her as she was of me. I should have realised from the beginning that I could never really leave her, not when we were connected on a level that defied rational reason.

We were now so close that I could lean forward and press my forehead to hers if I wanted to, but I didn't want to break eye contact with her, not after I had gone so long without seeing how beautiful she was, inside and out. As I captured her pale green eyes in mine, I understood in that moment, what it meant to love someone. To love someone is to put everything that they need and everything that they want ahead of your own desires. And Rapunzel had always wanted me. I had thought that what we had was fragile and breakable, but it wasn't, the truth was, I needed her. And because she truly loved me, she was always there, giving me what I needed, her vast and boundless love.

The hush over us ended when she turned away, biting her lips nervously. I blinked a few times trying to comprehend why she should be so concerned, and then I fully realised the situation I had walked in on. Looking down at the white silk dress Rapunzel was wearing, I honed in on the diamond ring on her finger. I came here to stop a wedding, but the gravity of the situation didn't truly occur to me.

How was I going to stop the wedding?

...

To have Eugene so close felt so right and normal, the emptiness I had been feeling inside was now filled by his presence. But it didn't matter. The crowd was shifting restlessly, waiting for the wedding to continue, but I was frozen, half way down the aisle. Do I continue walking down to Mason, or do I bolt out of that door with Eugene? Of course I knew what I wanted to do, but I couldn't abandon my family. And the way Mason was looking at me right now, like I had everything, made me wonder why exactly he was marrying me in the first place.

I couldn't think straight, my head darted between both ends of the aisle, each end held a different future for me, and each one came with enormous sacrifice. Eugene was silent, watching me carefully, trying to determine what I would decide. The silence was broken when a sharp, shrill voice penetrated the air.

"What is the meaning of this, girl?"

Mason's mother, the Queen of Rieva, stood up out of her seat, and angrily glared at me, her small nose upturned in disgust as she looked upon Eugene.

"Quit stalling with that commoner filth and marry my son!"

I could take her insults when they were directed at me, but no one, and I mean no one, gets to insult Eugene around me.

"He is not filth." I walked towards her slowly, a dangerous glint in my eye. I was so fed up with being treated as everyone's puppet, never allowed to follow my own dreams. In Gothel's tower, I wasn't allowed to make my own choices, and Eugene helped me to grow into my own person. In this palace, my choices were once again taken away from me, and again, Eugene was there, stopping me from enduring a life I did not chose for myself.

"Eugene is kind, and brave, and loyal and compassionate, and he cares about me. All of these things you will never be."

The room grew silent as I stopped my tirade, standing directing in front of the Queen, my breathing laboured in anger. The queen took it all in with a shake of her frivolously styled golden curls and smirked up at me. My distaste for her grew even more.

"Dear child, your father and I signed a contract, now get up there and marry my son."

Her frosty words emitted a layer of despair and even some of the wedding guests seemed to grow uncomfortable and unwilling to show support for the Queen. There were murmurs of surprise circulating the church as the guests realised that what they saw, was an arranged wedding, one I did not want to be a part of. There goes the perfect illusion.

"No." The simple word was spoken with masculine authority, the sound echoing around the now quiet room. I looked immediately to my father, thinking he had finally stood up for me at last, but no. He was not the one who had spoken. With confusion I turned to Eugene, wondering when on earth he started sounding like a noble, but he wasn't the one who had spoken either.

Mason stepped forward from the alcove at the front of the aisle and walked deliberately towards his mother, I heard a soft gasp escape my lips, and clutched on to Eugene's arm in anticipation for what was about to be said. I'm sure most of the other guests were doing the same.

"No, I will not marry her."

The Queen of Rieva looked like she had been slapped. Her indignant expression was far from her usual queenly superiority. She laughed lightly under her breath as though this was all a big misunderstanding, and then turned to her son with fire burning in her hollow eyes.

"What do you mean you won't marry her? We have searched tirelessly to find you a princess bride, and this is how you repay us? Now stop disgracing yourself, embarrassing me and you father, and stop being such a disappointment!"

The cruel words that came out of the queens mouth made everybody gasp. She looked around wildly, as though finally noticing she had an audience. She tried to laugh again but no one bought it. I was horrified that a mother would say those sorts of things to their child, and Mason just sighed as though he had heard them all before.

"It's not a disgrace to see that these two people," he gestured to where I was holding onto Eugene's arm, his other arm wrapped securely around my waist. "That these two people love each other. And she doesn't care about his status, she chose him. Mother wake up, I'm not going to get in the way of these people, and the way they feel about each other."

The Queen of Rieva let out an outraged shriek, but I wasn't paying attention. I had caught Mason's eyes, and mouthed a sincere 'thank you'. He nodded stiffly, and turned to his father, who was merely smiling in amusement at the scene that shocked and horrified the rest of us. Well, specifically, he was smiling at Mason, who was saying something under his breath to him. The Queen noticed this and stood up quickly, running over to her family and gripping her son's shoulders tightly.

"What's this? What is going on here?"

The King chuckled and beamed at his wife, whose hair had become dishevelled and her make-up smudged.

"Mason informs me that he never wanted to marry young Rapunzel at all, because he's been in love with a girl back in Gatsburg this entire time!"

The queen ran a hand through her hair and faced her son.

"Really? That's good. Is she a Countess? A Duchess? We could settle for someone upper class..." She mused as she dragged her son out of the church, throwing a spiteful look at me as she went. The Queen and Mason were just leaving through the large ornate doors, when the King of Rieva stood up and followed them, beaming.

"Actually, she is one of our handmaids!"

The Queen's roar of anger was drowned out when the King closed the church doors behind him, throwing a cherry wink at the confused crowd before leaving.

Pressing my face into Eugene's arm, I closed my eyes and wished that Mason would get to be with the girl he loved, and wondered if, despite his mother's obvious loathing of me, I would get to see his real wedding.

I opened my eyes and looked at Eugene's smiling face, and was overcome by feelings of joy. I wasn't getting married today! I could be with Eugene again! I stood up on my toes to kiss him lightly, but the feeling of his lips on mine sparked something inside of me, and I wrapped my fingers in his hair as the kiss deepened. I heard a loud cough, and pulled away, embarrassed, only to see my parents standing in front of us, their arms crossed sternly over their chests.