Little bit of a wait for this chapter. Life's just been hectic and busy; sad to say, don't think I'll be able to come back to daily updates.

1. I've finally outlined a clear ending to this story. My best guess is it's going to come sometime in the early 50s in terms of chapters. It's kinda sad because this is my first story I've written of any kind, and it'll be hard to say goodbye. But I do have ideas for a next installment in this series. I'll try to keep you all updated on that.

2. As always, apologies for any spelling/grammar mistakes that fall through the final cut. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 32 - He's Done Waiting

Type: Direct continuation of last chapter, part of the 'Chains of her Sorrows' storyline.

Description: Eugene finally manages to pop the question to Rapunzel.

"Rapunzel, first thing, you're..you're quite literally the best thing that has ever come into my life," Eugene breathed through an awkward laugh as he looked off to the side for a split second.

Rapunzel suddenly felt the urge to cry, not in a sad way, but out of happiness...but she didn't completely understand what he was saying. Where's his question?

He looked back to her, "Before I met you, I was a rogue, a thief, and a joker. All of those things, literally. I got off from the feeling, the rush of adrenaline and dopamine whenever I stole something of value, and ever since I was 13 years old, that was the only life I knew. I hurt a lot of people, and you know this, but one thing I've never told you is.." He scrunched his eyes shut and took a deep breath, "I've been hurt by a bunch of different folks, too. I went through my life after the orphanage, constantly being put down, told day after day that I'm no good, that I don't have a future in this world and that...no one...will ever love me." He felt the burn of tears welling up in his eyes, only to feel seconds after a cold and calming touch near the same spot, wiping them away. He cracked an eye open and saw Rapunzel tearing up, too, with her hand extended to his face, wiping his tears away.

He was supposed to be her pillar to lean on, but in the matter of seconds, she had become his.

He bit his lip and continued, "I put on this fake act to try to hide the inner darkness and sadness I felt, and for however long I can remember, it worked. Slowly and slowly, without even knowing it, I was pushing and throwing the old person….my own person I was as a child down the drain, in light of hopefully one day having stolen enough to hide myself away on this island in the middle of nowhere where no one would ever hurt me again." He sniffled and turned his head to wipe his face, as it had become more wet with tears.

He's never told Rapunzel this part of his backstory before, and she didn't know what to think...except that all this time, all this time he's been helping her through every single nightmare, through every single fear and angry moment she's gone through...those late nights he stayed up with her...she didn't know…

"Why are you only telling me this now? Eugene, I-"

"It's because I was scared," he explained a bit loudly, turning back to face her. She had retracted her hand by this point and held it close to her heart. "I was scared of what you'd think, what everyone would think of me. I grew this reputation as a man who was careless, reckless, self-centered, and all that was true..at one point. But that isn't who I am. It's never who I really was." His head had fallen and she leaned forward to take both her cheeks in between her hands, and she stared at him seriously.

"Eugene, you don't have anything to worry about, I know better than anyone what it's like..to make mistakes...to be afraid of...opening your heart to someone you love," she was the one now sighing, and Eugene's eyes had slightly widened.

"How long have you felt this way?"

"What?" she jerked her head back to him.

"Lo-look, I know you don't want to talk about it now, but please: just tell me, have you felt this way since the beginning?"

She bit her lip and held that position for a few seconds, "I-I don't know…"

"Well, do you have an idea on when it started?"

Her lip began to tremble. She had a perfectly good idea when it started, when she really started feeling down about herself and her self-esteem...but she feels horrible that she even thought that way once because all this time she thought he was working there to get away from her! But, she knows now that wasn't the truth...it was far from the truth…

"When you got the job at the docks," she whispered, "I thought you...started working there, on the weekends of all times, because you didn't want to..spend time with me.." She sniffled and Eugene's eyebrows furrowed with sadness as he gazed upon her teary eyes.

"No, I don't blame you for thinking that way," he sighed and looked down, "It's my fault, I should've been more clear and direct with you. I should've known, I don't even know why I wanted to buy this thing with my own money in the first place. Your father was practically begging me to let him pay for it."

Eugene isn't aware of it yet, but he just messed up big time.

"Papa? He knew what you wanted to buy?"

"Uhh...no, of course not! Why would you think that?" Eugene wore an awkward smile and his eye had begun to twitch ever so slightly.

Rapunzel looked at him confusedly, "You just said-"

"I know what I said!" He sighed very loudly as he looked up to the ceiling, "Rapunzel, I've got no idea what you did to me girl, but you've completely killed me."

Her eyes widened, "I killed you!?" She gasped and backed away, staring at him with a look of horror.

"Wha-no, no no- Rapunzel, I...this is what I mean." He let out a breathy laugh, "I'm so damn awkward when I'm with you, how can someone make me so awkward!? How does any of this even work?"

She tilted her head ever so suddenly to the side and squinted her eyes before feeling a cold chill rush upon her. She started shivering and wrapped her arms around herself, still only covered by the thin nightgown she's worn practically all day.

Eugene looked up from his little monologue and saw this, grumbling.

"I'm going to have to have a talk with these damn palace maintenance men," as he walked over to her fireplace, throwing a few logs in there before lighting a match. Ever so slowly, the wood started to burn and he walked over to her closet. Rapunzel watched through the blurriness of her slightly teary eyes and saw him bring a few larger than normal blankets over to her, laying them down on top of her body. Immediately she felt much warmer.

"Better?"

She slowly nodded, but rolled her eyes, "Weeellll, there's something else you can do that'll warm me up-"

"No." Eugene said sternly, pointing a finger at her, before he couldn't hold his smile in any longer. He patted her blankets down, "Have you always been like this?"

She bit her lip and smirked a goofy smile at him, "Maybee.."

"I've made a monster." He got up and moved back into the bathroom, grabbing another washcloth and dampening it with hot water. For what felt like the thousandth time already, he carefully stepped over each little and big glass shard, hoping to not crack one and create an ever harder mess to clean up. He walked back over to her and handed it, "Not sure if this'll help, but feel free to press it against your head. Might do you some good."

She took it and nodded, lifting the thing up to her head. It was hot, but not to the point it was unbearable. Eugene cleared his throat again and re-took his position on one knee beside her bed, resting his right arm on it in the process. "Where was I?"

She could barely see him now, with the cloth blocking the top half of her vision, "The docks,"

"Yeah, right." He shook his head and bit his lip, "I told you I started working there because I wanted to buy something. But I never told you what I wanted to buy specifically." She barely noticed it but he was now blushing ever so slightly and was smirking ear to ear. He took her free hand and held it in his own.

"Rapunzel, for these four months that I've known you, I've learned as each day's gone by that this is where I've always been meant to be, and I knew this all along deep down inside myself, whether I wanted to originally believe it or not. And this has always been where you're meant to be, too."

She smiled ever so faintly at him and felt his grasp on her hand tighten up.

"You woke up a part of me that was otherwise dormant throughout those two days I took you out to see the lanterns. For the first time in my life, I felt as if someone actually...cared about me. You cared about me, and I know now that you are the most important thing in my life, and that I care about you more than anything." He licked his lips and leaned over to her with his free hand to lift the rag up so he could get a better view of her eyes, "You're my everything."

Her words were raspy and choked because she felt the urge to cry again, "You're my everything, too."

He laughed silently to himself and ducked his head down, "I've wanted to ask you one question for months now. I wanted to wait until I had a certain object with me before I ended up doing it, but I know now more than ever that you need me, and I need you, and a big part of me is sick and tired of waiting. I can't keep this going with this act, not any more." He lifted his head and met her eyes, and Rapunzel's breath got caught in her throat.

Is this what she thinks it is? Is he..

Don't tell me..please..

"Rapunzel, sunshine, will you make me the happiest man on the face of this earth and let me do the honors of being your husband?" He looked up to her with pleading eyes, holding her hand high as it was squished between both of his.

Rapunzel's eyes widened and her mouth tilted open as she stared at him, his pleading eyes looking back at her, but they...they hurt to look at. She couldn't look at them without feeling this sharp pain in her chest. They hurt to stare at, because she knew he was kneeling there, waiting for her answer, waiting for her to confirm to him that she loves him as much as he loves her, which she does.

She really, really does. She loves him with all her heart.

But she couldn't do it. Her voice cracked and she batted her eyelashes a few times as a few more tears fell down her face. Her lip began to tremble and Eugene slowly relaxed his grip on her hands, letting them fall as he looked down to the ground.

Rapunzel heard him sigh and that's when everything broke. She scrunched her eyes shut and curled up into a ball, whispering frantically, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, Eugene, I've ruined this, I've ruined you, I don't-"

"Rapunzel, please, stop!" He yelled. She jumped and pulled back even further only to find she could not move anymore, for she was now against the back headboard.

His breaths became more frantic, and his voice more pleading, "Stop saying that about yourself! You're not a failure! You don't ruin things! Why are you being so hard on yourself!?"

Her lip trembling, she whispered, "Be-because, I co-couldn't-"

"You couldn't do what!? What, Rapunzel!? Tell me!"

"I couldn't say yes! I can't say yes!" She ducked under her covers and curled up into another little ball, whimpering and quietly sobbing to herself as she rocked back and forth.

Eugene was stunned by her words, and then he began to understand what he had just done. In probably her most broken period of her life, where she clearly is troubled by something very dark and very horrid inside her head and heart, he asked her the BIGGEST question any young man can ask their beloved, expecting her to somehow respond in a calm and direct manner.

"Son of a bitch!" he yelled, punching her bed before standing up. Rapunzel's head twitched at the sudden force she felt through the comforter when his fist hit her sheets. He walked over to her dresser and held his hand over his face, clenching it tightly over his mouth..

"Eugene! What is it!?" He heard the King's voice call and then he remembered that he, his wife, and the doctor have been standing out there this whole time. He could let them in right now, let them see their daughter, the princess... but he had to...he had to fix this. There is still time to fix this. There is still a way. There is still something he can do.

"Rapunzel," his voice was muffled by his hand and he turned in her direction, "I am so sorry for dropping that on you-"

"Stop! Stop talking!" She yelled from under her covers. He turned to Pascal who looked up to him with saddened eyes and a small little pout in his lips.

"Eugene!"

"What!?" He yelled and turned to the door. Slowly and slowly, he was losing his cool...once again…

"What's going on in there!? Is her foot alright!?"

"Yes-her-damn-foot is alright! The foot's not the problem, your majesty! It was never the problem!"

There was a few second pause, "Then what's taking so long!?"

He clenched his jaw and leaned over, pulling at his hair, pulling the damn ponytail out and letting it all flow loose so he could grasp and tug at it. He screamed and breathed hard, staring down at the ground. "GAHHHHHH!"

"Eugene!" The King's voice was ferocious, and if he didn't know any better, it sounded as if he wanted him dead.

He could only groan and murmur in response, and he felt the King's presence through the now persistent bangs on the door. "Let me in right this instant!"

"No! Please, please, don't let him in! Eugene, no!" He heard Rapunzel's yells and screams from under her covers, both her parents screams coming from behind the door, and he was just about done with it all. It's finally gotten to the point where he's had enough.

Enough of this crap.

Enough of letting Rapunzel say that horrible stuff about herself and about him.

Enough waiting.

"STOP!" Eugene yelled.

The room fell silent, the outside hallway fell under this same spell and Eugene panted as he released his grasp on his hair, which was now all frizzy and messy from his relentless pulling.

"I'm done!" he croaked in a broken voice, "Your majesties, I'm done! I'm done waiting!"

There was more silence from the outside.

"I'm sick of waiting!" he yelled a tad louder, "Your daughter is hurting, your daughter is in so much pain...and there's only one thing I can do to show her that I don't care if she thinks she's a problem, when she actually makes things so much better by just being there! She's not perfect, neither am I, neither are you. No one is! She's human, and humans need love!"

He didn't hear a single word come from the outside and he whispered to himself in a broken voice, looking down at the floor.

"She needs my love... more than I could ever imagine."

Rapunzel, during all of this, had stopped shaking and stared wide-eyed into her dark covers in the mostly darkened room, barely able to see his figure, his shape through the thick fabric...and she yearned for him, a part of her was calling to him; she wanted to open her mouth and scream his name and TELL him to get over here to her right this instant so they can finally become one!

Eugene bit his lip in contemplation before running over to Rapunzel's bedside, knocking over the formerly full bowl of water on the floor in the process, not caring if he'd be messing up the floorboards by doing so. He jumped on her bed and grabbed and pulled on Rapunzel's covers, dragging them off her squirming body until he was finally able to gaze upon her reddened eyes, her puffy and rose colored cheeks as she stared at him with what he thought was a look of horror.

He clenched his jaw and stared back at her, whispering to her with the utmost of intent, "I'm done waiting."

And then without wasting another moment, he threw his hands to her cheeks and cupped them, tugging her close to him as he violently smashed his face up against hers. He kissed her more passionately than ever before, and felt her tense body, her tense movements in her arms and legs as they slowly relaxed up until she began to lean into him, into his movements. He fiddled with the buttons in front of his shirt as she cupped his face with her hands, finally freeing himself of this cage he's been locked in. He pulled away from her for a split second, feeling her needing breaths, the hot and warm feelings she gave him from just being here, and pulled and tugged at his white undershirt. He got the thing off almost immediately and felt her face and lips crash into the section of his body where his shoulder met his neck, kissing him there as he moaned in ecstasy and wrapped his arms around her entire body, her entire form, pushing himself up against her, growing warmer, and warmer...

This is their moment.

He's waited for her.

She's waited for him.

And something snapped inside both of them in this very moment of their intimacy, something that's been holding them both back for weeks, months...practically ever since they both first laid eyes on one another back inside that tower. There was a different air to this dark chamber that was normally known as the Princess' bedroom.

In this moment, neither of them had the ability, the strength, the utter and raw power to hold off and negate their feelings anymore. Both of them were broken in their own ways, and each of them held the key to putting the other back together.

This night, Rapunzel and Eugene became one. One body, one soul, interconnected for the rest of their lives. Forever as one.

A/N: Originally the next chapter in this story was going to be their scene of intimacy, but any chance of this story staying rated T will be thrown out the window if I do so. So, what I'm instead going to do is make a separate story where I'll be posting all M rated scenes from this universe (if you want to know, there is another M-rated scene coming up in a few chapters).

Edit History (MM/DD/YY):

1. 6/17/20