Final installment of 'Chains of her Sorrows' is now up!

1. In my eyes, I see this as the final part of the 'first act' of the story. These 30 or so chapters up to this point have mainly been solely Eugene/Rapunzel and Frederic/Arianna but I have plans on trying to incorporate other characters soon, some from the show, some being my main creations (like Leonard and Isabella, if you remember those two). I haven't had much inspiration as of late to write with work and all that, though I do think I really have an interesting idea for the way this story could go (and the way its potential successor may go, though I'm still thinking about just making one mega story instead of splitting this up into smaller ones). As a heads up, my ideas lie with me taking inspiration from the TV show; you'll see what I mean once we reach there.

Chapter 35 - Breaking the Chains

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

Description: Rapunzel and her mother have a heart to heart conversation, and Eugene goes to see and check up with the King.

Arianna has had a pretty sane and normal relationship with her daughter and her most likely to be husband, Eugene Fitzherbert. But when Rapunzel laid her hands on her husband, Frederic, and struck him in the manner that she did, something inside shifted and now for the first time, she intended to bring out her more stern and serious side in hopes of finally getting to the bottom of this. Of everything.

She has many questions, ranging between the following:

1. What in the world went on between those two during all this time? (She has her own suspicions but needs to be sure before she makes any official accusations)

2. Did the young man actually propose to her, and what did she say?

3. Why, for whatever reason, has Rapunzel been so down and so depressed lately?

4. What can she do, as a Mother, not as a Queen, to fix the way her daughter is feeling?

She tugged at her daughter's arm and pulled her down the hall, not saying a single word as Rapunzel looked on at her father, Arianna's husband, on the floor completely unconscious because of something she did to him. Just like the day prior, she struck her father, and could not find the words to explain how regretful and sorrowful she now felt.

It was less than a minute before Arianna pulled her daughter into a study, one she hasn't used in years, because quite frankly she hasn't had the need to. She jerked Rapunzel forward and grabbed hold of the door, slamming it behind them as her daughter stood there in complete shock. Arianna had her fists clenched at her side as she scrunched her eyes shut and took deep breaths to help calm herself down. Her lip was pursed shut and she opened her eyes to see her daughter, who had taken a seat on the couch off to the side, bawling her eyes out into the palm of her hands.

She wanted to be mad at this girl. She wanted to put her foot down and finally lay down the law, she wanted to scold her daughter for stepping on her foot like that, but more so for knocking her husband unconscious.

But the sane and practical part of her personality, of who she is, understood why she did what she did. Arianna wanted to strike the boy right after understanding what her husband was thinking they were up to in that room all that time. No young man, not even the wealthiest of Princes, should ever lay a hand on a Princess, on a noble figure in ways such as that before marriage. That is just custom, and generations of royals and suitors have abided by that rule with no problems whatsoever.

Until now, if her suspicions were correct.

Arianna cleared her throat and Rapunzel's head jerked up from her tiny ball of sadness she was wrapped into. Inwardly, she cringed at the sight of her daughter's puffy eyes, the tint of red her cheeks turned whenever she was in a crying fit. Arianna wanted to run to her daughter's side and whisper sweet nothings into her ear, to comfort her in the way a mother should comfort their kin in their most trying time of need.

But, she knew that this was the right time to remind her daughter of who she is; a friend, a Queen, but first and foremost, her mother.

"Rapunzel." Her mother frowned down to her and the girl choked through her sobs, not responding initially. Perhaps it was just because she didn't know how to. "Rapunzel, dear." Arianna called to her again. She walked over and grabbed the desk chair, which was on wheels, and pulled it over in front of her daughter. She took a seat and sat up, trying her best, fighting an inner battle to keep a straight face; a straight, and stern face to her daughter who was breaking right in front of her own very eyes.

Rapunzel sniffled and wiped her face, finally looking up to her Mother. "Ye-yes?"

"Do you know what you just did?" She raised an eyebrow.

Rapunzel's eyebrows furrowed and she looked down, mumbling to her. "Ye-yes, Mama."

"You hit your father. You knocked him unconscious."

Rapunzel sulked back in her seat and pulled her knees up, holding them close to her and slowly began rocking back and forth. Her lip was trembling and she appeared as if she would fall apart at the slightest touch. Arianna sighed and brought her hand to her forehead, rubbing it with her fingers.

"Rapunzel, you need to talk to me. I am not here to yell at you."

Rapunzel rocked back and forth and slowly shook her head, mumbling some quiet words, quiet sayings to herself that Arianna could not hear at first until they began to grow louder.

"I hit him, I struck him-"

"Rapunzel-"

"I might've killed him, he could be dead-"

"Rapunzel, please-"

"I'm such a bad daughter, why am I like this-"

"Rapunzel!"

Rapunzel's head jerked up and she looked to her mother with teary eyes, her vision a little blurred due to the wetness. Arianna's eyebrows furrowed with sadness and she could only speak barely above a whisper now, "Sweetheart, please, what are you doing? What are you saying?"

"Do-don't call me, don't call me that," she mumbled into her knees.

"Why? Rapunzel; honey, please-"

"Don't call me that! I don't deserve to be called that!" She dropped her head past her knees and curled up into an even tighter ball, and Arianna's shoulders slumped. Whatever she was doing, it was not working. If anything, she was making the situation worse.

She didn't understand what was going on with her daughter but she had an idea as to why she's acting like this. It has to be an effect from all that time being locked up inside that tower, the poor girl. Something's wrong inside that head of hers and Arianna knows that she has to find out what it is before it's too late. Carefully and cautiously, she made her way from the chair and took the seat next to her daughter. She watched as Rapunzel cried to herself, and couldn't hold back the urge to want to comfort her any longer. She rubbed her fingers in a soothing and gentle way across Rapunzel's back and could feel her body shaking.

"Rapunzel, please... let me help you." Rapunzel barely lifted her eyes and saw her Mother sitting next to her, and she let out a cry as she moved to wrap her arms around her waist. Rapunzel cried into her mother's shoulder as Arianna continued to rub her back soothingly.

"I-I'm so, I'm so sorry Mama!" Rapunzel cried.

"Shhh, shhh, young girl...you don't need to speak right now."

Arianna gently cooed her daughter until she was finally in a state of peace, when her sobs had finally come to an end. The only sounds she emitted were from her faint sniffles as the last of her tears and from her nose fell down her face. Arianna moved to cup her daughter's cheeks with her two hands and stared at her with saddened eyes of her own,

"I love you very much. Do you know that?"

"Ye-yes...Mama…" she whispered, looking down.

Arianna tilted her head forward and placed a quick kiss on her forehead. "When you went missing, a part...of me died. And ever since your return, I have been whole. You make me whole, sweet girl." Arianna sniffled through the feeling of sadness that was bestowed upon her now as she watched Rapunzel's face lighten up for a split second in a quick breath.

"Whether you want to believe it or not, not I, your father, Eugene, or anyone else inside this castle sees you as a failure. It pains me to hear the way you talk about yourself sweet girl, you are nothing but a ray of sunshine in all of our lives." Arianna wiped away a stray tear with her thumb and watched as her daughter's big green eyes look up to her,

"D-do you...really mean…"

"Yes...yes, I do. And if you need any more assurance, I promise you that you are not a nuisance to any of us." She pulled Rapunzel in for another hug, and the two women wrapped their arms around each other. A new sense of tranquility took the room hostage and for the first time in forever, Rapunzel felt as the hole in her heart was slowly being mended, slowly being put back together.

Eugene sprinted back into his room to deal with the mess that was now his face. As he arrived in front of the mirror in his bathroom, he gasped at the sight of the faint red handprint on the right side of his cheek. He immediately reached over for a washrag and went to town on cleaning and wiping his face until all the blood was gone from his skin. He opened his mouth one final time to inspect his insides and his jaw dropped at what he saw. In the front, one of his bottom teeth was completely gone. The one that was right in the middle, too! I look like a buck-toothed clown!

He screamed and banged the sink in pain and agony. The horror! How can he go on like this!? He's deformed! He's broken!

Eugene was interrupted during his little mental breakdown by the sound of banging at his door. He grabbed a washrag, afraid for his own dear life of anyone seeing him in a state like this, and walked back to his door holding it to his mouth. He opened it and there stood a guard.

This guard, an unfamiliar man to Eugene, did not hesitate for one moment before speaking. "His majesty would like to speak with you."

Eugene felt the insides of his stomach twist and turn and drop, quite frankly, at that statement. First off, he woke up really quickly after getting knocked out like he did. Secondly, the last thing he remembers from being near the King was quite literally having his tooth slapped out from in his jaw. So, he can't really be blamed when he's a bit fearful of going to see the royal majesty himself, but it's not like he had any other choice.

Eugene followed the guard down the halls, the mostly empty halls to be more specific, until they landed in the royal infirmary where Frederic was laying, rested up on a hospital bed, holding a ginormous ice pack to the side of his head. He looked half asleep and half awake.

Eugene clenched his jaw and took a step forward, his footsteps alerting the monarch to his presence. Frederic turned in his seat and his eyes widened at the sight of him standing there. Frederic motioned to the seat next to him, and Eugene reluctantly took a seat.

"Eugene," The King's voice was raspy. "How... how's the face?"

Eugene chuckled and stroked his bare chin. "Not good, sir."

Frederic sat up and looked at him with regretful eyes, "I'm sorry, son. I never should've struck you."

Eugene nodded, "I know."

"You...you know far more than anyone else how much she...means to me. How much she means to her mother, and this entire Kingdom. I suppose...thinking about the possibility of what you two might've done, it pushed me over the edge." He sighed and rested back against the backboard of his bed. Eugene looked at the King somberly and sighed as well. The right thing to do in this moment was to be honest with the man, own up to what he did, how he fell victim to his lust and passion for his daughter.

And that's just what he decided to do.

"Sir, I must be honest with you." Frederic's head tilted up and Eugene rubbed his wrists in front of him anxiously. "I did not have sex with your daughter."

Frederic bit his lip and looked forward, speaking barely above a whisper. "I see."

"But...sir, I've done everything in my power these past four months to get you to trust me. And I'm not going to go back on all the truths I have told because I'm afraid of what might come upon me if I tell this specific one right now." He took a deep breath, "I did propose to your daughter, sir, and she said yes. We are engaged. That's a fact. But...before...we were intimate with each other, yes." Eugene's head sulked down and Frederic felt an anger rising within him again, but he chose not to act on this new, familiar sensation.

"It isn't what you're thinking, but I did….I did touch your daughter, and I...I saw her…"

"Naked."

Eugene's brow furrowed and he raised his head to meet the King's look, nodding slowly. Frederic spoke, telling him to continue, and Eugene did so. "I did not go farther than simple touching, sir. And I'll tell you right now that I was actually telling her to stop, but she refused-"

Frederic raised a hand. "Enough."

"Huh?"

"You've told me enough." He sat up and moved his body so his legs dangled off the sides, and he maneuvered the ice pack ever so slightly against his head. Eugene could tell he was not pleased with this news that he just bestowed upon him, but at least he did not appear as if he wanted him dead this time. "Did you force her?"

Eugene scoffed. "Force?"

"Yes, answer my question."

Eugene's eyes darted and his voice was shaky, "U-uh, no, sir. I did not, and I would never force such an act upon her without consent. If anything, really, I guess I can say she kinda forced me-" He began to chuckle but was met with a deathly gaze, causing him to immediately shut up.

"So, she wanted...to be intimate with you?" It was almost as if the idea was not possible for King Frederic to comprehend.

Eugene swallowed, "Going off everything that girl did to me and made me do myself, safe to say she-" Eugene was again stopped in his own words by the sound of Frederic growling, clenching his teeth. "Yeah, too much. Please don't kill me."

Frederic's expression lightened and he sighed. "I won't kill you, son. I just...I needed to know."

"I understand, sir. If I were in your position, I'd be angry, too. I'd want to know what this maniac, this devilishly handsome former thief, rogue and joker was doing with my daughter behind my back, too-"

"You speak too much, anyone ever tell you that?"

Eugene smiled impishly, a toothy smile. "Your daughter, sir. All the time."

"That's good to hear, because once you two are married, I can only presume you will be hearing that notion more often than not." That's when the whole idea, the whole realization that he was actually engaged to this awesome, beautiful girl he's fallen in love with over these past four months hit him. Eugene Fitzherbert, former thief, rogue and joker, is engaged to Princess Rapunzel, and in the manner of months, he will be cemented in history as a Prince Consort of this legendary Kingdom of Corona.

This was the beginning of a new journey, whether he liked it or not. And while the whole thought of being a Prince freaks him out, he knows he'll have a certain someone by his side throughout any and all trials and tribulations that may come his way.

Edit History (MM/DD/YY):

1. 6/26/20