Day Ten: Break In
I've never written for Tangled before, but this prompt fit perfectly. Based off that one tumblr post (you absolutely know which one, don't lie). Set in the modern day. Idk how reptile terrariums work, I only understand aquariums.
As always, tomorrow's prompt and fandom are at the bottom. Stay safe!
Usually when Rapunzel woke up in the middle of the night, it was because there was a thunderstorm outside, or maybe she had to pee, or sometimes she just really needed a glass of water and to stare blankly into the bathroom mirror contemplating existence. There was always a (mostly) logical explanation for being awake at three in the morning.
Never before had she been shaken awake in her single bedroom apartment that she lived in alone, however.
"Do you – stop screaming, please – do you live like this?" the strange man hovering over her asked.
If Rapunzel could stop panicking for about ten seconds, she might have heard the genuine concern in his voice. As it was, she fumbled for her bedside and ripped out the cast iron pan she'd buried under the pillows and blankets. With a grunt, she swung, and the guy collapsed on her floor.
Her coworker who had helped her move had scoffed when he'd watched her put the pan under the sheets. "Why do you need that there?"
"In case someone breaks in. I don't have a baseball bat, and I don't have a knife, and I don't like guns, so this is the best I've got," she'd said, flipping the pan around in her hand.
"Where did you even get that?"
"Goodwill."
Now she stood on top of her bed, trembling and holding the pan with both hands. The streetlight filtered into her room through the cheap window blinds, and, when the man didn't appear to move, she stumbled across the rumpled sheets to smack the ceiling light on. In the corner, Pascal was darting back and forth in his tank, eyes wide (though she supposed they usually were).
Her phone had been shut off last week, and she didn't get paid until this weekend, but she'd heard from someone that you could still call 911 on a disabled cell phone. Which would have been great, except because she couldn't use her phone, she hadn't been charging it, like an idiot.
Rapunzel licked her lips and glanced towards the door. She could either grab a neighbor for help, or she could take Pascal and bolt until the guy decided to take what he wanted and leave. Most people would tell her to take the neighbor route, but she didn't exactly live in the best part of town, and her neighbors kind of freaked her out. The guy next door? Had a hook for a hand.
Before she could decide, though, the man on the floor groaned and lifted a hand to the back of his head. She squeaked and pointed the pan at him, suddenly very aware of the fact that she was in nothing more than a nightgown. "Wh-Whoever you are, g-get out," she demanded feebly.
The burglar sat up slowly, wincing and holding his face, and for a moment, Rapunzel felt bad for beaning him in the head. Until, of course, she remembered that he had been trying to steal from her or kill her or something. She pointed the pan a little harder at that thought.
The man turned, holding up his hands, and she hesitated. He was attractive in a "Stereotypical College Professor With a Goatee" kinda way, his hair falling across his face as he looked up from the sheer shagginess of it. There was already a bruise staining the side of his face where Rapunzel had hit him. "I'm not going to hurt you," he said in a low voice. "I promise."
Rapunzel scoffed. "Yeah right. You don't just…break in to someone's house without intending to hurt someone."
The guy started to get to his feet but froze when Rapunzel backed against her door frame and stiffened her arms, tightening her grip on the pan. "Okay, okay, yeah, that's…my bad. Honestly, though, I don't hurt people, I just…" he hesitated, eyebrows furrowing.
"Just steal?"
"Yes. I-I mean, no, not, not really," he stammered, shaking his head and crossing his hands over each other in mid-air. "I…I mean…"
He trailed off, like he didn't know how to make the situation better, and Rapunzel sighed, lowering the pan a little. "Look, if it means you'll leave without hurting me, just take whatever, okay?"
The man stared at her for such a long time with such a blatant look of sadness in his eyes that Rapunzel found herself shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably. "I'm not taking your shit. I mean…not anymore. Man, you really live like this?" he finally said, echoing his sentence from before Rapunzel had hit him in the face. "You have like…nothing."
For some reason, Rapunzel felt insulted. "I do too!"
The thief raised an eyebrow. "You have your mattress on the floor. And a dresser from Ikea," he noted, glancing at her rickety old dresser that she'd actually gotten from Goodwill for five dollars. "Your living room literally has an air mattress as a couch. And you have a radio on your floor. Your dining room table is a coffee table with pillows around it. The most expensive thing I've seen in here is the tank for your gecko thing over there."
Against her will, her chin started trembling. "So?" she managed, struggling to keep back the humiliation she felt. "So what?"
The thief tried to stand again, and this time she let him. He kept his hands in front of him, palms facing her. The genuine concern in his eyes made her feel overwhelmingly panicked. "So, let me help. Come on, you need some good furniture. A couch, a table, some chairs, a bed frame."
She scoffed, startled to find tears welling across her vision. "What, gonna steal it from someone else?"
He rolled his eyes. "Not if you don't want me to."
Rapunzel sighed and dropped the pan, stepping away from the door. "Just…leave? Please? I have to work in the morning. I won't call the cops, just go."
The guy hesitated as he passed her, still keeping his hands visible. "If you could have called the cops, you would have," he said softly.
Her back stiffened and he left.
When she went to the door to double lock it and shove the coffee table in front of it, she found two twenty dollar bills lying on the floor under the door with a note attached that read, "For your phone bill. Or top off cards. -Flynn Rider."
She pressed her lips into a thin line, feeling tears finally start to spill over, and she picked up the money a bit reluctantly, wondering if it was also stolen. Money was money, though, and she couldn't afford to say no.
She took the money and went back to bed, but she sure as hell didn't sleep.
When Rapunzel got back from work the next day, she found Flynn Rider lounging in her living room. At least, she thought it was her living room. It had been completely changed.
Instead of barren, wooden floors with an air mattress and a coffee table as a dining table, she had a full sized sofa. And not just a regular sofa, but one that wrapped around the corner of the room and divided into pieces. The coffee table was actually being used as a coffee table now, and where it had been was an actual dining table, complete with four chairs. There was a purple rug under the coffee table, and against the wall was a TV stand with a small flat screen sitting on top. The radio sat on a shelf under it.
She dropped her bag at the door and looked at Flynn in disbelief, unable to find words. Finally, she settled. "Purple's my favorite color," she said quietly, taking her jacket off and hanging it on the Command Hook by the door.
"I know. Or, I assumed. It was your nightdress color."
"Is it stolen?" she asked finally, refusing to look back at him.
"Nope. All used, though. Facebook Marketplace."
Her lips quivered and she took a breath. "Right. I can't…I can't pay you."
"I'm not asking you to."
"People don't just do things from the goodness of their hearts, Flynn," she snapped, turning to look at him. She watched his lips part in surprise. "I owe you now then, is that it?"
"I…no, you don't owe me anything," he protested.
Rapunzel shook her head and kicked her shoes off. "Right. So I get comfy, settle in, and then someone won't show up in a week or two to demand I help with something illegal. Sure."
"I know what it looks like…when someone is on the verge of being homeless," Flynn said quietly. Rapunzel swallowed and shut her eyes. "And what it looks like when you don't have anyone to turn to during it."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"There's no pictures on your walls. The money you had, you spent on your lizard. You worked what looked like a ten hour shift, based on how long I've been here. At a shitty fast food place in a shitty part of town, not to mention you live in said shitty part of town."
Rapunzel spun around, glaring and yet unable to stop the tears. "What do you want to hear? That I had to run away from my abusive mother after finding out she kidnapped me as a child? That I have no idea who my real family is? That I was kept isolated and inside my whole life, so now the closest things I have to friends are the people I work with? What do you want from me?"
Flynn's eyes were wide, and he stepped a little closer. Rapunzel was no longer scared of him, so she stood her ground. He walked further and stopped just in front of her, eyes searching. "I don't want anything from you. I just get it, okay? The…having nothing thing. It sucks. And I could help for once, so I…" he shrugged. Glanced up at her. "Usually when I steal, it's from stupid rich people. Ones who won't notice if their seventeenth pair of Louis Vuitton shoes go missing."
"So why break in here?" Rapunzel asked, slumping, feeling defeated. "Obviously this isn't the rich part of town."
Flynn sighed. "This older woman paid me to. She didn't tell me anything specific, just that I should take whatever I wanted, make it obvious I'd broken in. I needed the money, so I took it. But when I saw how little you had, I just…I couldn't do it. I thought maybe you had someone out to get you, but-"
Rapunzel shut her eyes and confirmed his unspoken question with a nod. "It was my mother. My…not my mother, my…something. I knew she'd figure out where I was eventually, I just…" she sighed and slumped against the door frame, pressing both hands to her face and trying to remain calm. "I didn't think it'd be so soon. She's trying to scare me into moving back home. What did you tell her?"
Flynn's smile flickered to life on his face. "Told her she had the wrong place. I know a couple friends here. They'll keep their eyes out if she comes back to investigate."
Rapunzel dropped her hands, swallowing back tears. "Why?"
"They're good guys. I know they look a little scary, but they're all harmless ducklings, really, and-"
"No," Rapunzel said with a shake of her head. "Why?"
Flynn shut his mouth and glanced back at the apartment. "Like I said. Know what it's like. If I can help, I want to. Grew up in foster care my whole life, so having things to call your own…" He shrugged, gave her a small smile. "Makes you feel worth something, you know?"
Her lips parted and she stared at him in a new light, finally relaxing fully against the wall. "Yeah," she murmured. "Yeah, I…yeah."
His smile was crooked and endearing. "Name's not really Flynn, by the way. Use it with people I don't know well to keep from being tracked down by the cops. Eugene."
Rapunzel couldn't stop the bubble of amusement from rising in her chest and slipping past her lips. "Eugene?"
"It's a strong name," he protested, though there was no fire behind it.
He stuck a hand out, lifting an eyebrow, and she took it slowly, letting a smile finally cross her face. "Rapunzel," she offered. "I…thank you. I know I didn't say that. But thank you."
"Course. Got you a bed frame, too. And your lizard buddy an upgrade."
"Pascal," she said, already nudging past him to go look. When she saw that he'd replaced the pathetic ten gallon tank Pascal had been stuck in (temporary, forced after having to flee her mother's home) with a 25 gallon terrarium complete with furnishings, she pressed her hands to her lips. "Oh my." Then, in surprise, she turned back to Eugene, who had followed her into the room. "He let you pick him up?"
Eugene rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. "After trying to fully eat my hand, yes. Once he realized I was just moving him over, I think. I put the smaller one in the bathtub for you to clean out – figured you'd want to keep it."
Rapunzel stared at him for a long moment until finally he was the one shifting under her gaze, which was mildly satisfying. "What?" he demanded.
She licked her lips, looked back at Pascal, at the new bed frame, did a double take as she spotted the new recliner next to her rickety bookshelf. "I…kind of could kiss you right now," she admitted, her cheeks burning.
Eugene's eyebrows flew up and his eyes twinkled as he started smiling. "Wow, just for buying a lizard a couple of rocks and sticks? Noted."
"He's a chameleon," Rapunzel corrected, and she pressed up on her toes to settle a careful kiss on his cheek. "Thank you."
Eugene's smile widened and he opted to settle an arm around her shoulders, giving her ample time to move away. She didn't, leaned into the touch, and he nodded back out the door. "Want me to show you the new dishes I got you?"
"Oh my god, you didn't."
"I did. Come look, they're floral."
Tomorrow's fic: Warm Blankets, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power