Summary: When Rapunzel and Flynn enter the snuggling duckling, they catch the attention of a former pirate, who tries to prove his loyalty to the king of Corona in order to become a guard.
Pairing: Rapunzel x Zhou Tai
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Disney or Dynasty Warrior franchise.
"Garcon your finest table please." Flynn says opening the door to the restaurant and pushing Rapunzel in. She freezes up upon seeing the rough looking men eyeing her and Flynn and raises her frying pan to protect herself.
"You smell that? Take a deep breath through the nose, to me that smells like part man-smell and really bad-man smell. I don't know why but overall I just smell the color brown." Flynn tells Rapunzel, pushing her further into the room, surrounded by countless ruffians.
"That's a lot of hair." One says, touching the blonde hair dragging behind Rapunzel.
"Is that blood in your mustache? Goldie, look at this. There is a lot of blood in his mustache." Flynn tells her to scare her and catches up to Rapunzel who walked to the very back of the restaurant, accidentally bumping into a man around her age, who's about the same build and height as Flynn, but is wearing all black clothes with red lining and black armguards, with a Katana lying on the table in front of him and his head turned away from the room.
"Goldie, you don't look too good, why don't I take you home and we call it a day. You'd probably be better off. This is a five-star joint afterall, I mean if you can't handle this place, let me bring you back to your tower." Flynn suggests and tries to lead her out of the restaurant again but some of the men recognize him and fight over who gets to cash in the bounty that's on his head with one of them leaving to fetch a guard.
Rapunzel then convinces the men to let her and Flynn go so he can help her fulfill her dream, something the men can relate to, most of them having unfulfilled dreams of their own.
When the guards arrive at the restaurant Flynn takes Rapunzel and pulls her behind the bar, where The man Rapunzel bumped into earlier meets up with them and shows them a secret passage out of the restaurant and leads them down the tunnel to escape the guards.
"Thank you for you help, but who are you?" Rapunzel says, following the man who helped her and Flynn escape.
"My name is Tai Zhou." He informs them.
"Well I've got to say I didn't know you had that in you back there, that was very… impressive." Flynn tells Rapunzel, disappointed his plan didn't work.
"I know." She shouts excited.
"What is the deal with you two?" Tai asks them, glancing back at the group, letting them see the scar under his left eye up close.
"I want to see the lanterns in the sky and Flynn will bring me to them." Rapunzel replies immediately.
"Don't the lanterns get released every year? How come you haven't seen them before?" Tai asks.
"Uhh, long story." She replies and they suddenly hear a lot of noise coming from behind them.
"Run." Tai tells them and starts to run forwards.
"What?" Flynn and Rapunzel ask confused but chase after him upon seeing the guards closing in on them.
When they reach the end of the tunnel they come out behind a dam, overlooking a large canyon.
"Who's that?" Rapunzel asks, seeing two armed men bust through a mineshaft in the canyon and look up at them.
"They don't like me." Flynn says.
"And that?" Rapunzel asks, looking back at the guards, who caught up to them.
"They don't like me either." Flynn answers.
"Here!" Rapunzel says and hands him her frying pan before using her hair as a rope to swing to the other side of the canyon, leaving the two men behind to face they guards.
Flynn turns towards them, fearing his capture but Tai quickly unsheathes and sheathes his Katana with the guards falling down unconscious before they can take another step.
"Can you teach me that?" Flynn asks excited.
"No." Tai simply tells him and runs towards the cliff, running a few steps along the wall before jumping off and landing beside Rapunzel.
On the other side of the Canyon Flynn starts to fence with the horse which initially chased him through the woods and to Rapunzel's tower until he loses the match.
Rapunzel wraps her hair around his wrist and pulls Flynn over the edge, letting him swing through the canyon with Tai helping her hold his weight.
Flynn lands on a water way, letting the water flow down a wooden path and tells Rapunzel to jump when the horse kicked over one of the dam's support beams to reach her. She looks towards Tai for a second, who gives her a quick nod and she jumps down with Flynn holding the end of her hair to let her down easy. Tai simply jumps down into the canyon and starts to run towards Flynn and Rapunzel's location while the dam starts to break behind them.
Tai soon dashes by the two men who are looking for Flynn because he stole their loot and is right behind Rapunzel and Flynn, who run towards a cave entrance with a huge boulder crashing down above them, threating to crush them.
Tai manages to cut one of the large pieces of debris falling towards Rapunzel and her companion in half with the halves landing right beside the two and Tai landing just behind Flynn, catching the frying pan which is flying through the air above him just before the three dive into the cave, escaping the boulder. When they are in the cave however with water pouring in and the water level rising in the small cave, they quickly realize their mistake and both men dive underwater to look for a way out with no success.
"It's no use we can't see anything, it's pitch black down there." Flynn says, stopping Rapunzel from attempting to look for a way out as well.
"This is all my fault, I should've never escaped the tower. I'm so sorry Flynn." Rapunzel says while Tai continues looking for a way out.
"Eugene." Flynn says.
"What?" She asks confused.
"My real name is Eugene Fitzherbert. I thought you should know." He tells her.
"I have magic hair that glows when I sing." Rapunzel says and realizes that they might have a way out. She quickly sings a few lines of a song before the two have to take a deep breath, the water reaching over their heads. Moments later Rapunzel's hair lights up, showing them a weak spot in the rockbed and Tai quickly punches against the weaker rock wall, breaking through after a few hits and letting them escape, all three of them landing in a small river flowing underneath the cave they were in.
Once they're outside the three heft themselves to the shore.
"We made it, alive." Rapunzel says relieved.
"Your hair glows." Flynn says shocked and Tai simply coughs, having been holding his breath a while longer.
"Tai, are you OK?" Rapunzel then asks him, helping him to his feet.
"I'll live." He says holding one hand in pain because he broke it when he punched through the wall.
"Eugene, help me with him." Rapunzel says and looks over to her guide only to see him running away in the distance with Pascal pointing in his direction wildly.
"Eugene!" She shouts, but he simply continues running away, yelling "Her hair glows!" in fear.
"What was that back in the cave?" Tai asks Rapunzel, sitting down, facing the river with her joining him, holding her legs to her chest, hurt that Eugene fled from her.
"My hair has special powers, which is why I can't cut it. If I cut it, it loses its magic." Rapunzel explains.
"So? Do you need that magic?" He asks.
"Here, let me show you what it does." Rapunzel says and wraps some hair around his hurt hand. She then starts to sing a song, healing his hand in the process.
"Amazing." Tai says, closing his fist to see if he feels any pain.
"Apparently it's not that amazing." She says, looking towards where Flynn escaped to.
"Why did you need him anyways?" Tai asks.
"He promised to bring me to the floating lights and I give him his crown in return." Rapunzel explains.
"He stole that crown you know." Tai tells her.
"Yeah, I guessed as much." She replies before sneezing.
"Come on, let's make a fire and rest here tonight." Tai suggests, helping her up and pulling her towards a large tree. He quickly cuts up a few branches of wood from a neighboring tree and makes a small fire with them.
"Hey, I realize that I don't know why you wanted to come with us." Rapunzel asks him, looking at him in the shine of the fire since night has fallen already.
"Well I was actually after Flynn's bounty, so I could prove myself to the king of Corona and maybe sway him to let me join the guard, but I knew that that would destroy your dream so I'm putting it off until after you've seen the lanterns and are safe back home." Tai tells her.
"I… don't know what to say. Thank you so much." Rapunzel thanks him.
"Like the others in the duckling said, we all have dreams." Tai says.
"What is yours?" She asks intrigued.
"Oh, I've already tried to fulfill mine, but as it turns out it was a bad dream." He tells her.
"There is no such thing." Rapunzel says disagreeing.
"I wanted to be a pirate, and I was for a long time. But giving up that dream was probably my best decision yet. Even though that's where I got this from." Tai tells her, pointing at the scar under his eye.
"Wow, pirate huh? I've only read very little about them, but aren't they supposed to be cruel and evil?" She asks curiously.
"Yeah, I'm going to be honest. I did steal and injure a lot of people, but I never intentionally hurt someone. I only did it to protect myself. That's why I have this as reminder." He explains.
"What do you mean?" She asks.
"Well, my pirate crew didn't like me, their strongest fighter letting their enemies live and they tried to force me to kill a group of unarmed villagers. I escaped their hold and freed the villagers, killing many of my fellow pirates and getting this wound during the fight.
"Then you don't have anything to be ashamed off, I think. You sound like a good person." She tells him.
"I'm not, but thank you for giving me the benefit of a doubt." He says with a small smile and hears her stomach grumble.
"Stay here, I'll go collect some berries." Tai tells her and disappears into the night to get them something to eat.
Moments later Rapunzel's mother shows up.
"Well I thought he'd never leave." She says, revealing herself to Rapunzel.
"Mother? How did you find me?" She asks shocked.
"Oh that was easy, I just followed the sound of complete and utter betrayal and followed that. Now let's go home Rapunzel." She says, hugging Rapunzel.
"Mother, please you don't understand. I've been on this incredible journey and have seen so much, I even met someone." Rapunzel tells her.
"Yes, a wanted thief and a filthy pirate. Come on Rapunzel." The mother replies, trying to drag her away.
"Mother wait, I think he likes me." Rapunzel says.
"Likes you? Please, don't be childish. I should've never left. Now don't be a dummy and come with mommy." Mother Gothel tells Rapunzel.
"No!" Rapunzel says decisively and her mother leaves after telling her that she's making a mistake.
"Rapunzel, are you OK?" Tai asks, seeing the girl look into the dark forest.
"Yeah, just lost in thought." Rapunzel tells him, accepting some berries he offers her. Meanwhile Mother Gothel meets up with the two thieves who were after Flynn, whom she convinced of helping her capture Rapunzel, giving them the crown as payment as well as telling them why Rapunzel and her hair is special.
The next morning Tai leads Rapunzel to Corona without any more problems. When she enters the city however there are so many people walking around that her hair gets caught or stepped on multiple times, so Rapunzel and Tai quickly collect her blonde hair and Tai gets the idea to let a group of girls who were braiding each other's hair braid Rapunzel's hair to shorten it.
The girls readily agree and a couple minutes later Rapunzel has a wide braid reaching to her ankles, decorated with flowers.
"Oh Thank you." Rapunzel thanks them gratefully.
Rapunzel then sees a mosaic picture of the king, his wife and their missing daughter on the plaza's wall while Tai fetches them some food.
Once he got the food however somehow Rapunzel started dancing and is roping in the citizens in her dance with Tai waiting at the sidelines. After that Rapunzel proves her talent for art when she draws the Corona symbol, decorated along its edges on the pavement, covering a quarter of the plaza. Afterwards Tai shows her to the library where she starts to read whatever she can get her hands on and what catches her interest.
The two stay in the library until it's evening and the lanterns will soon be released into the skies.
Tai leads her to the docks and takes the rowing boat he arrived in Corona with a long time ago and rows them further to sea to give her the best view possible.
"Are you sure we can take this boat?" Rapunzel asks him while he's rowing them away from the docks.
"Why not? It's mine after all." He tells her.
"Where are you taking me?" She asks.
"You ask a lot of questions you know." He says amused.
"Sorry." She apologizes.
"I didn't say I mind." He tells her with a smirk.
"And I think you deserve a special view while fulfilling your dream, don't you?" Tai asks.
"Hey, are you alright?" Tai asks her half an hour later, lying in the small boat, looking towards the sky while Rapunzel looks towards the city pensively.
"I'm terrified, I've been looking out my window for 18 years, dreaming of what I'd feel when I see the lights rise in the sky, what if it's not everything I've dreamed it'd be?" She asks.
"I think you won't be disappointed, but on the off chance that does happen, If you want I'm willing to help you look for another dream." Tai tells her, joining her at the side of the boat, leaning on the railing next to her.
Soon after the lanterns get released all over the city and Rapunzel storm to the front of the boat where she can see the first lanterns rising.
"Slow down. It's been a long time since I went out to sea with this nutshell." Tai tells her when the boat shakes from her eagerness.
Rapunzel stares in the sky for a while until she feels Pascal's small hands pull on her earlobe and she turns to face Tai, who's sitting at the other end of the small boat, holding two lanterns.
"I'm sorry I don't have anything for you." Rapunzel says disappointed, accepting one of the lanterns.
"You already gave me what I was looking for." He says.
"What?" She asks intrigued.
"Someone to accept me." He says, releasing his lantern and swinging his sword in quick strikes towards the floating lantern, carving the sun pattern she drew earlier on it. Tai quickly puts away his sword, joining her on the seats again and she takes one of his hands, looking deeply into his eyes.
The two of them then lean in for a kiss when she suddenly shoots up, asking "Is that supposed to happen?" and points downwards, where a slowly growing puddle forms in the middle of the boat.
"I said it's been a while." Tai says and quickly gets the rows, rowing them to the closest shore which is right next to a forest.
Once he rowed over there and dragged the boat to shore, he hears something in the woods and gets the feeling of being watched.
"Stay here and stay down. Don't follow me. No matter what you hear." Tai tells Rapunzel, making her hide in the boat while he walks into the woods, drawing his Katana.
A few seconds after he disappeared into the woods Rapunzel hears metal clanging.
Tai, going to see what or who's watching them comes upon the two men hired by Rapunzel's mother to take her back and they demand he hands her over, which Tai refuses to do.
The two then start to attack Tai, who blocks them with ease, until one of the two throws dirt into his eyes and he gets cut on his arm. The three continue to fight for maybe 1 and a half minutes, before Tai beats them but falls down paralyzed by a poison which was coating the two henchmen's blades.
"Crap, I hope that's all of them." Tai curses.
"Oh, yes they were everyone I needed. Now I'll just finish you off and take my beautiful girl back home." Mother Gothel says, stepping out of the shadow with a dagger and starts to cut Tai all over his Torso, over his shoulders, his forearms and three deeper cuts across his torso, making the tough man scream in pain and pass out due to it.
"Tai!" Rapunzel shouts in fear and discards her thoughts of safety, dashing into the woods towards where he escaped only to find her mother holding Tai in her arms.
"I tried to help him but I was too late. He managed to safe you from these two before he succumbed to his own wounds." Her mother lies and embraces Rapunzel who run over to her crying her eyes out.
"Wait, I can help him." Rapunzel says, taking her braided hair in her hands but her mother takes her hands off her hair saying "No, he's gone already. It's too late for him." She says and pulls Rapunzel with her, who is crying helplessly.
A couple hours later Tai wakes up in the Snuggling Duckling, his torso covered in bandages and hurting like hell.
"Rapunzel!" Tai yells, looking around himself in worry.
"She's not here. They found you in the woods about to die and the mime stitched you up." Flynn tells him, sitting at the table he's lying on.
"Where did you meet her? The woman said she's taking her home." Tai asks him, sitting up in pain.
"There is a high tower hidden in a clearing." Flynn says.
"Alright, here's the deal. You take me to her and I won't turn you in to the guards." Tai offers to Flynn, holding his Katana under the man's throat.
"OK." Flynn agrees sweating slightly under the man's dangerous glare.
When the two step outside the restaurant the white horse which was looking for Flynn sees them and storms towards them, intending to capture the thief, only to stop dead in its tracks when it makes eye contact with Tai, who looks at it like prey about to be slaughtered.
The horse whimpers and kneels down, bowing it's head in respect.
"Take us to Rapunzel." Tai says, getting on the horse with Flynn. The horse then takes off in a gallop, lead by Flynn and an hour and a half later the two men and one horse reach the tower.
"Rapunzel let down your hair." Flynn shouts up the tower and moments later golden hair is being let down like a rope.
Tai quickly grasps the hair, climbing up the tower with much difficulty, given his wounds all over his torso, which open up from the strain he puts on them.
When he reaches the top, he stumbles into the tower, seeing Rapunzel being tied and gagged in the room.
He feels someone behind him and turns just in time to block the dagger aimed at him curtesy of Rapunzel's mother. Tai quickly disarms the woman, causing the dagger to fly into the roof where it gets stuck and Tai limps over to Rapunzel, removing the gag from her mouth.
"Rapunzel, are you OK?" He asks her concerned, removing the chains from around the girl with Mother Gothel furiously looking for another weapon.
"Tai, careful she's not my mother." Rapunzel warns him.
"You, whoever you are, you are only after one thing, aren't you?" Tai asks the woman accusingly.
"So what? I need her hair." The woman screams angrily!
Tai looks towards Rapunzel once and says "well too bad." Before cutting off most of Rapunzel's hair with his Katana, leaving her with brown colored hair that reaches to her midsection.
"Nooo! What have you done?" The woman screams out and holds her head in frustration, quickly starting to pale and turn to dust while falling out of the tower with Pascal tripping her.
"No, Tai what did you do? I could've saved you." Rapunzel says sorrowful, hugging the man who's now resting against a wall close to herself, trying to cover him with her now brown hair and sings her song as usual only for nothing to happen.
"Don't worry about me. I'm fine with this. I finally feel like I've made up for all the bad I let happen." Tai tells her, holding her hand and giving the back of it a kiss before falling back against the wall lifelessly with Rapunzel crying over his lifeless body sorrowfully. One of her tears lands in one of his reopened wounds and suddenly a bright light begins covering half of his torso, all over where he's been cut and flowers of energy bloom from them.
Tai's eyes open slightly moments later.
"Tai? Tai you are alive." Rapunzel says happily, glomping onto him, only for him to scream in pain.
"Argh, if I had known coming back to live would hurt this much I'd have thought twice about it." He groans, leaning back against the wall.
"Tai." She says, her eyes still brimming with tears and he wipes them away before she quickly grasps his shirt and pulls him closer to herself, kissing him with him deepening the kiss moments later.
At this sight Flynn enters the room, having found the staircase of the tower after the large amount of hair fell out of the tower along with someone turning to dust.
"What is this?" Flynn asks, raising his eyebrows suggestively.
"Blondie already growing up huh?" He asks with a smirk.
"Once I have a strong grip on my blade again, you'll pay for that." Tai tells him.
"Yeah yeah, just be glad I'm going to help you down his ridiculously high tower." Flynn tells him, throwing Tai's arm over his shoulder and walking down the tower with him and with Rapunzel following close behind.
"Oh, there is something I forgot to tell you. I figured it out before my … chained me up." Rapunzel tells them.
"I'm the long-lost princess of Corona. I remembered where I knew that flower pattern from. I remember looking up at the King and Queen with the insignia painted on the roof." Rapunzel tells them happily.
"Uhh, if they believe you, do you think you could do something about the whole fugitive and thief thing?" Flynn asks her, putting air quotes.
"Sure." She agrees with a small smirk.
"So, how are we doing this?" I mean two people on a horse are pushing it but three?" Flynn asks as they walk over to the white horse that brought the two men.
"Do you know the way back to Corona?" Tai asks the horse, using his sword as crutch while looking in it's eyes and the horse nods proudly.
"After you Rapunzel." Tai says, helping her up on the horse and getting on after her.
"Thank you for bringing me to her, just think of this as being even for letting Rapunzel down at the river." Tai says, riding away with Rapunzel, who grins back at Flynn.
"Oh come on." Flynn says disappointed and starts to make his way to Corona as well.
When Tai and Rapunzel arrive in the city Rapunzel immediately drags him to the castle, where she tells a guard that she is the king's daughter and he leaves to inform the King and Queen of the claim, who come storming out of the castle a couple minutes later and see her waiting for them, looking towards the two with hopeful eyes, looking like a younger version of her mother, especially with her hair now brown.
The Queen slowly walks over to her and puts her hand on Rapunzel's cheek before breaking out in a wide smile and hugging her daughter with all her might. In the embrace Rapunzel looks up to her father, who cries tears of joy as he joins his wife and daughter in their embrace.
Tai, who was waiting next to Rapunzel looks at the three, happy for Rapunzel when her real mother offers her hand, which he accepts, thinking she wants to shake his hand but instead the Queen pulls him in to join the hug, which makes Tai yelp out in pain.
"Argh." He groans, lying on the floor next to the finally reunited family.
"Tai." Rapunzel says worried and helps him sit up against the railing of the balcony they were on.
"What's wrong with him?" Her father asks, looking over his daughters' shoulder, seeing that she cares for the man close to her age.
"It's a long story, but he was hurt while saving me." Rapunzel tells them.
"I will have the royal medicus see to him at once." The king says.
"No, thank you, I don't think he can do much more." Tai replies, taking off his arm guards, showing them the bright red scar along the arm.
"I'm fine, it'll just take a few days to get used to. I mean you don't get cut up and healed by magic everyday right?" Tai asks with a smirk as he stands up, leaning against the railing.
"Thank you so much for bringing our daughter back to us." The Queen thanks him, hugging her daughter again.
AN: Let me know what you think,
story will continue with story from tangled the series.