Disclaimer: I only own this plot, though I would love to own Tangled.
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Chapter Twenty-Nine
Both Rapunzel and Flynn were remarkably quiet as they rode towards the capital city, Flynn's arms wrapped tight around Rapunzel's waist, as though afraid of letting her go, even for a moment. This was partly true, as he had come too close to losing her again for him to be comfortable with letting her go, even for a few moments. Rapunzel didn't seem to mind, though, so he didn't bother releasing her. They didn't stop to set up camp that night, as they were both too frightened of what the night might hold for them, so they kept going. Max didn't complain or show signs of tiring, and Flynn had never been more grateful for the large horse than he was at that time.
It wasn't until the second morning of their journey home that Rapunzel spoke. Flynn had thought she was still asleep in his arms, so he was rather surprised to hear her voice.
"Was Isabelle really your sister, Eugene?" she asked quietly, resting her head against his shoulder.
It wasn't exactly a topic that Flynn wanted to discuss at this point, but he couldn't ever deny Rapunzel anything she asked for. Sighing as he thought about his answer, Flynn mentally reconstructed Isabelle's face. Not the way it had been when she died, crazed and filled with hatred, but the way it had looked before, coldly beautiful and distant. Flynn had seen his father once, several years after he ran away from the orphanage, and now that he thought about it, Isabelle shared a lot of traits with the "honorable" Lord Herbert. She had the same strong jaw and deep-set eyes, as well as the nose that Flynn had also inherited.
"Yeah…I think she was," he finally said after a moment. "My dad wasn't exactly…a very discreet person."
Rapunzel's cute little nose wrinkled in confusion. "What does that mean?"
Flynn sighed again, remembering with a slight smile that she wasn't as worldly as him. "It means that he got a lot of women who weren't his wife pregnant," he explained. "Not that he ever had a wife, but that didn't make what he did right."
Her look of confusion was quickly replaced by one of comprehension, then disappointment. Clearly, she was still unused to the idea of how badly some people could behave. "Why did he do it, then, if it wasn't right?"
An excellent question. One Flynn probably would have asked his father if he ever met the man in person. "Because…some people just aren't as good as you are, Rapunzel," he finally said with a shrug. "And my dad was a bit of an idiot."
If Mrs. Miller was to be believed, and Flynn had never had any reason to doubt her when she spoke of his mother. Apparently, his mother had been in love with Lord Herbert, and would have married him, but the man was too concerned about his image and refused to marry a lowly peasant girl. So Flynn had been born in an orphanage, losing his mother before he ever met her. Frowning a little at that thought, Flynn tightened his hold on Rapunzel.
"That's not a nice thing to say about your father," Rapunzel scolded, but her tone was half-hearted, as if she agreed with his assessment of his father.
"I never met the guy," Flynn said, as if that justified what he had said. "Not in person, anyway. But what I saw didn't give me much reason to like him."
He felt Rapunzel wrap her small arms around his middle, giving him a comforting hug as she gently kissed his cheek. "I'm sorry about that," she murmured. "And about Isabelle, too." She was silent for a long moment before she asked another question that Flynn was not eager to answer. "Isabelle mentioned someone named Edith…who was she?"
Groaning mentally at the question, Flynn sighed and pulled Max to a stop. "I think this is a conversation to have on the ground," he muttered as he slid off the horse's back. That and his backside was starting to protest how long he had been in the saddle, but he wasn't about to admit that. Helping Rapunzel down, Flynn led her to a pair of large rocks and sat down across from her. "I told you I was an orphan," he said slowly.
Rapunzel nodded and took his hands in hers, instinctively knowing that the touch would help to calm Flynn. It did help a little, but not much. Still, Flynn was grateful for the effort on her part.
"Well…that was only because my dad didn't want me," he sighed. "He gave me up after finding out about me, so I was raised with other kids whose parents had died. When I was four…another girl got pregnant with my dad's kid. She died having the baby, so she was raised with me. Her name was Edith." Flynn paused and looked up at Rapunzel, as though he expected to see judgment in her eyes. Instead, all he found was sympathy and adoration. Smiling weakly at her, he cleared his throat before continuing. "She was my little sister, so I took care of her while I could, but when I was eight…I ran away." He grimaced a little at that memory. "I was tired of people talking about me like I had some sort of disease, so I left. But I couldn't take Edith with me…"
He broke off there, not willing to meet Rapunzel's gaze as he remembered the last time he had seen Edith. She had been playing in the garden and fallen over, scraping her knee. Flynn had gone over and washed off the scrape before sitting her down and reading her some of The Tales of Flynnigan Rider to make her feel better. He hadn't told her of his plan to run away. He hadn't even said goodbye, just left his copy of their favorite book and left without any explanation.
Rapunzel, however, appeared determined to not be ignored, as she moved over to sit on Flynn's lap, resting her head against his shoulder and wrapping her arms around him.
"I'm sorry," she murmured. "I didn't mean to upset you…I just wanted to know."
"It's okay, Blondie," Flynn sighed, hugging her back. "It needed to be asked, and you had a right to know."
Behind them, Max snorted and looked up from where he had been grazing, as though asking to know when they were going to leave again. Glancing down at Rapunzel, Flynn motioned the horse over and then gently patted Rapunzel's back.
"We should keep going," he said quietly. "Still a long way to go."
Rapunzel nodded and once more let him help her up into the saddle before he climbed up to join her. Settling comfortably against his back, she smiled a little sadly as she wrapped her arms around him, turning so that she was riding side-saddle.
"I think I'm going to sleep some more," she murmured softly.
"Go ahead," Flynn replied. "I'll make sure you don't fall over."
She made a face at him for even suggesting that she would fall over, but she didn't say anything as her large green eyes fluttered closed, leaving Flynn alone with his thoughts.
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They reached the palace early the next day, with Max snorting loudly to alert Flynn to this fact. Looking up from watching Rapunzel's sleeping face, Flynn sighed heavily and reached forward to pet the horse's neck.
"Thanks, buddy," he said quietly as he reached down to softly shake Rapunzel awake. "Wake up, Blondie," he murmured. "We're home."
She shifted with a yawn and stretched idly, smiling sleepily up at Flynn before she slipped off of Max's back and moved to hug the horse around the neck. Murmuring a soft thank you against the horse's fur, Rapunzel stroked Max's neck before she beamed up at Flynn and held her hand out to him. Smiling back weakly, Flynn accepted her hand and pulled her close, slapping Max's backside as he passed, letting the horse know he could go back to the stables. The one thing that Flynn didn't want to do just now was face the king and queen to tell them about Granny's death, but at the moment, that seemed to be what he had to do. Not a pleasant thought, especially considering the fact that apparently Granny was the king's mom. Sighing heavily as he gently wrapped an arm around Rapunzel's waist, Flynn made his way up the stairs and into the palace itself. Best get this over with.
The first thing that Flynn noticed was that no one tried to stop them, even though they could clearly see that the Princess was barefoot and wearing nothing but a tattered nightgown. All the servants just seemed to watch as they made their way through the halls, trying to find the king and queen. When they reached the throne room, both the king and queen didn't bother with ceremony, simply rushing forward to wrap their arms around their daughter, and even Flynn, to his surprise.
What? Why were they hugging him? Glancing at Rapunzel, Flynn caught her loving smile and felt like his heart had just melted.
"Tell us everything," the queen said quietly. "Where…where is…?"
Neither Flynn nor Rapunzel had the heart to meet her eyes as they began explaining all that had happened to them. In the end, everyone but Flynn was in tears by the time they finished telling their story. Flynn wasn't surprised by this. He hadn't cried since he was a little kid. You just don't cry when you're trying to set yourself up as a badass. It was very hard for him to manage to cry at anything, no matter how upset he felt about it.
When they all broke away from one another, Flynn found that Rapunzel was still holding him tight and he wrapped his arms around her waist, just to help her feel better. It seemed to work a little, but Flynn was pretty sure that they both were still feeling miserable.
"I think…I think Rapunzel and I need to get some rest," he said with a sigh. "I'm sorry…"
The king nodded and his wife instantly wrapped her arms around him as Flynn and Rapunzel made their way slowly to their bedroom.
