~ Rapunzel Goes Home (extended edition)
~ Chapter 054
~ Eugene and the Leap of Faith
Things were getting out of hand for Eugene, he felt as he was standing near a window as a whole bunch of important people milled around the cream colored room. Their shoes clacking against the marble floor tiles.
Staying near Rapunzel was wonderful, but there had been so many people to meet, ceremonies and things going on, it was all starting to mush together in his head. He was glad for the seneschal that made sure they were all in the right place at the right time. Not that just being with Rapunzel wasn't distracting enough; then there were all the drinks people were buying him.
Here they were for … some important something or other. Whatever! It didn't matter. Rapunzel was the important thing to him right now. She was beautiful in a blue gown that brought out her eyes.
They had dressed him in a ridiculous outfit with a big red sash, but he didn't care about what he was wearing.
She'd be talking about some chore she had done in the tower and he'd be enraptured, his eyes lingering on the curves of her face. They'd be sitting across from one another at a state lunch and he'd get lost in those enormous eyes, he could hear Flynn Rider off gagging in some far off corner of his mind, and he didn't care.
But it was embarrassing when the person next to him started sniggering when his side of the conversation got lost in those big, beautiful green eyes.
He wanted to get her alone just to talk, but there was no time that he could carve out for themselves. He even thought about climbing the balcony and roof but there were guards everywhere now. Those Lock Guards always seemed to know where he was.
He could leave for a little while, but it was painful to be apart from Rapunzel anymore. He didn't know why.
He couldn't resent her parents wanting all the time possible with their daughter, and she needed her quiet times to rest. They all needed quiet time to rest, but Rapunzel even woke up screaming from naps, if they weren't careful.
He thought he was good with people, but meeting hundreds, if not thousands of people every day for nearly a week was making his brain melt. At least the king and queen needed some quiet time too. He didn't feel so bad about napping himself.
And the dancing, he'd never danced so much in his life. It seemed if there were more then 10 people about and music there was dancing within a few minutes of Rapunzel coming into the room. He'd fall into bed exhausted and be up at dawn to comfort Rapunzel's nightmares.
Those were beginning to concern him.
Heck, they concerned everyone, even the kitchen staff, who was spiking her food with all sorts of herbs and spices that were supposed to relieve nightmares. Ever since his little talk with the Queen he'd been watching what she eats with greater attentiveness. He appreciated what they did. As an orphan he learned there was a big difference between what someone says and what someone does.
Eugene desperately needed to talk with Rapunzel. He wanted her alone, since it was probably going to be intensely personal, but he didn't think that was going to happen anytime soon, not between her parents, officials, guards and maids. He had wanted to try talking at breakfast, but the seneschal had his breakdown over that picture of 'mother.'
How he loathed the kidnapper! Everything she had done had been an attempt to break Rapunzel's heart, crush her soul, and kill him, and she succeeded!
One last drop of magic had saved him at the last, but still. What was worse was how she had treated Rapunzel. When he had told Goldie that she needed to break her mother's heart and crush her soul, he had never meant anything like this and yet, the more he heard of her story, the more literal it became. Her 'mother' was actually doing those things to Goldie.
The worst part was he could remember what she said after she had stabbed him, "Look at what you've done, Rapunzel." She still had the dripping knife in her own hand and she dared blame Rapunzel!
Rapunzel had loved 'mother,' maybe even still did, that painting bothered him a whole lot, with her smile and outstretched arms. He had gone through a lot of work to sneak that painting kit into Rapunzel's room. Well, not exactly sneak, not with a platoon of guards all over him all the time, but a surprise gift for her.
He'd seen how the tower was decorated and that was an obvious gift. He was glad that she had started painting her room, but that picture of 'mother,' it bothered him. Well, it least it spent all of it's time behind a drape.
But what was bothering him most right now was that he really wanted to talk to Rapunzel about her leap of faith at the dam. He had never even thought of letting her fall. True, he wasn't in love with her yet at the time, though admittedly, he did have a fascination for her, which had started as soon as she had stepped out of the shadows back in the tower, all glow-y in the light of the sun.
But Eugene felt guilty. He had betrayed his accomplices, the Stabbington brothers, just minutes earlier that day. Had done his best to scare her back to the tower so he could get his satchel back. She had known that trusting Flynn Rider was not something to do lightly. Even he himself told her that was a bad idea.
And it gnawed at him.
When he had become Flynn Rider, sure he was a thief, but he tried to be noble and honorable. That didn't last very long. If you could steal from a person you could certainly lie to them, and it had spiraled down from there. The Stabbington brothers had been right to demand the satchel before giving him a boost up that cliff, Flynn Rider couldn't be trusted.
Eugene Fitzherbert wanted to be trusted, he wanted to be known as a man of his word. That is why he had asked for justice from the King the night they came back, though he was still relived that they had come up with the Jubilee to solve that problem.
Here he was watching Rapunzel talking to some well dressed men and women, he couldn't remember what group they represented anymore, it was all becoming such a blur, about the only thing he was sure of was they weren't the lollipop guild.
He spied an open love seat by another window and noting a lull in the conversation, smoothly excused the Princess from the group.
"Where are we going?" asked Rapunzel with a curious smile her warm hand finding his on her waist.
"Not far, Goldie, just over here. I just think we need a second off of our feet," and gently placed her on the love seat and sat next to her.
"Why do you still call me Goldie? My hair is brown now." The beautiful princess asked.
"You still have a heart of gold. Its just, its been days since we've had any time to talk, and I don't know when we'll have a chance again and I just need to talk to you."
"Um, okay," this intensity was a little disconcerting coming from Eugene.
"This is not really the place I want to do this, but I can't stand it anymore," he paused for a breath.
"Yes," what was he up to?
"At the dam when you had to jump, when I was holding your hair, you had to think before you did it. You had to decide if you could trust me. For some reason that's been eating at me for these past few days."
"But I did trust you, I did jump and you held me up." She looked at him with loving eyes.
"Yes, but that is not the point. You are so wonderful. Flynn Rider... I never considered letting you fall. You had just saved my life 3 times in the past 10 minutes, and I was trying to scare you back to the tower."
"Maybe, but you did save me from the Stabbington brothers by knocking apart that waterway, and then you gave me your real name and the idea I needed to give us the light we needed so you could dig us out of the cave."
"I don't want you to ever have to think if you could trust me again. I don't want to be the kind of person who can't be trusted," said Eugene looking into those magnificent green eyes.
"Oh, Eugene. I do trust you," said Rapunzel, tightly gripping their clasped hands.
"I know you do, even if no one else does." Eugene said miserably, looking away.
"I trust you," said the King from right behind Eugene, who jumped.
"As do I," said the Queen who came around to be behind Rapunzel, putting her hands on her daughter's shoulders.
Eugene looked around, the whole room was silent, looking at them. He started to turn redder then Pascal, who was looking very red.
"Well, it looks like the Prince Consort is getting a jump on his duties. How about we formally invest him with that responsibility?" Announced the King to the room at large, who cheered in response.
Eugene wanted to melt into the floor. He had completely forgotten, this was supposed to be when they made him the Prince Consort to the Princess.
~ End of Chapter 054
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Author's Note: Eugene, I love you man. You're trying so hard to be good, but there are so many distractions. It's been an off week, it's not normally like this. :)
I was watching Tangled and had to pause it just at the jumping scene when she blinked, but for some reason when I got back to it, it just looked like she was thinking about trusting Flynn.
Eugene is a good boy and he's trying to overcome Flynn so he can be a good man. The Wizard of Oz reference was just fun.
