Chapter Text.
Rapunzel awakens to panicked screams. They're raw and charged with emotion, she sits up, quickly gathering her robes around her as she runs down the hall to Eugene's room. She opens the door and sees a figure, thrashing on the bed, crying out in from the visions that terribly plague him so.
"Eugene wake up!" She cries from his bed side, there are guards at the door now, nervously watching on as the princess approaches her lovers bed side. She squeezes his shoulders, his biceps, flicks his forehead.
Finally he wakes up. He surfaces from the tangle of sheets with a strangled wheezing shout.
"Help!" His breathing is too fast and he's glistening with sweat in the moonlight.
A deep sigh once he realizes he's not in danger, he falls back into the bed panting and shivering from the breeze through the open windows.
"E-Eugene?" She whispers his name, afraid of startling him.
"It's okay blondie," He's still panting, but lighter. "I'm fine, sorry I woke you."
She sits next to him in bed. "You're clearly not fine." She grabs his sweaty hands, rubbing a caring thumb over the back of his knuckles. "Tell me love."
He shakes his head. "I'm fine."
I'm fine. It's all she hears each night for the next few weeks she wakes to his cries.
It had gotten so bad, the dreams, that Eugene stopped sleeping entirely. Only during the day in quick napping sessions between his royal duties would he rest. Rapunzel observed one of these "black outs" when she was laying with him. The hot sunrise promised a blistering day for all of Corona so she is spending high noon indoors. If they were up to it later they'd go for a hike in the surrounding mountains. She was playing lightly with his hair, arranging it this way and that until she was satisfied, then watched it flop back into its wild style. He twitched, small enough to be his breath, but Rapunzel knew better.
"Eugene?" She rubbed the back of his neck. He groaned I'm discomfort, face twisting into a broken, desperate expression. Like someone on the verge of tears. She shakes his shoulder and he rolls away, curling in on himself.
"No... Stop it." He mutters under his breath, then goes still. "St-stop, that hurts!" He shrinks further away, pathetic little mewling sounds slipping past his parted lips.
"F-fuck! Ow!" He's trembling and Rapunzel is panicking. She's shaking him but he keeps whimpering and flinching.
Oh my gosh finally he wakes. He doesn't sit up fast like before, his eyes open darting around the room while he takes deep breaths. He eases himself into a half sitting position, his legs out of the side with the ankles crossed. His arms support him while he looks momentarily dazed by he bright light. He blinks a few times, looks around and spots his lover, then he shuffles over and lays his head in her lap. He picks up her hand and places it back on his head. His arms circle her waist as he falls back asleep under her soothing touch.