Chapter 7 – Time to Step Up

MINOR SPOILERS – For the season 1 finale of the Tangled animated series. Like, I twist it around enough not to spoil anything too vital, but the bones are there.

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Eventually Gil found himself trapped in some small garden courtyard far off the beaten path. The guard patrols had been increased to the point that escape seemed impossible, and while Gil could yield with grace, part of him was too terrified to move from the shadowy nook he had claimed for himself. His back was to one the stone walls that separated the garden from the rest of the castle, and he was squeezed between a willowy tree and yet another bush. He had his knees pulled against his chest, chin tucked down against them, and as much as he knew he had to leave, Gil couldn't help but contemplate living the rest of his life here. They probably wouldn't keep the guard patrols up forever, right? Eventually, they'd have to sleep. The other guests had to leave, and Gil could get lost in the confusion of that.

It was fine. He'd be fine.

"Gil."

Jay's voice carried from the entrance of the garden, though there was no way he could know, unless – right, his magic, the tracking charms.

"Gil." Jay was nice enough not to cross directly to Gil's hiding spot, instead settling down next to a low fountain, the water clear enough to show a golden tile mosaic hiding at the base of the pool. "Gil, I'm sorry."

No, he wasn't. If he was sorry he wouldn't have said anything. He would have just left things as they were.

"It didn't feel right, anymore," Jay continued. His hands were twisting in the fabric of his pants, and were Evie there she would scold him for it- hell, Harry would too, but Jay seemed too distracted to bear mind to their potential warnings. "You deserve to be a hero."

A rough noise built in Gil's throat, a growled sort of croon of refusal he couldn't stop if he tried. He pressed a hand to his mouth, but Jay was already on the move, crossing towards the shadows to crouch before Gil's hiding spot. "Gil-"

"No." Gil shook his head, looking anywhere but Jay's earnest expression. "No, you promised."

"I thought I could do it." At least Jay seemed honest about that much, his hands hovering in front of him like he wanted to touch Gil but couldn't, knew he wasn't wanted (even if he always was). "But it wasn't right. Gil-"

"I don't want to be a hero." It came out in a rush, gasped and ugly because Gil's throat was so tight, heat building behind his eyes in useless frustration. "I don't want to be an ambassador. The only thing I wanted from this trip was to see some penguins and we haven't even done that yet!"

Instead they'd been solving problems across each kingdom they encountered, recovering lost artifacts and ending curses and everywhere they went their name and infamy grew, and it made Ben and Uma and Mal proud but Gil just felt small because all of it was an accident and none of it was something he deserved, especially this.

"Tell them you lied." Gil pressed his forehead against his knees, trying to hide the tears that threatened to spill down his cheeks. "Tell them you were trying to be nice or something. Throw me a bone."

"I'm not doing that." Jay's warm hand settled on his shoulder, and as upset as Gil was it was still a source of comfort, something he wanted to lean into desperately. "This is your story, Gil. You're the hero Corona deserves."

"Right." Gil's fingers began to tremble from how hard he was clutching his legs. "All hail the hero of Corona, the guy who can barely write."

He expected another quiet consolation from Jay – because despite his quick-fire anger back on the Isle – this Jay was patience incarnate. Coy and teasing but kind, even when he wouldn't say as much outright. Gil expected Jay to squeeze in beside him, wrap an arm around his shoulder until Gil was ready to face the music, likely after they had called one of the others (who were probably frantic at their friend's disappearing act, but at least it had been for a good reason).

Gil hadn't expected the hand to retreat altogether, and only sensed the new people approaching when Jay shifted out of the way.

"Is that why you asked Jadir to take the credit?" It was Queen Rapunzel, the voice Gil had desperately been trying to avoid the moment his hair had started glowing in the Dark Kingdom, when his entire world had shifted upside down. "You don't think you're worthy?"

No, it was because the Moonstone greeted him like an old friend, because it buzzed against his wrist in a playful banter and because his hair glowed sometimes and he could heal people, and none of those were things Gil, the unnamed son of Gaston, should have been able to do. And if he wasn't a son of Gaston, maybe he was a prince or a duke or whatever, and Gil thought being an ambassador had been a terrible choice but those would be worse

"Gilbert," King Eugene said his full name like it wasn't a taunt, crouching beside his wife and Gil should look at him, he should, but then maybe they'd know. "Where we come from– what you know – that doesn't matter. What matters is what you do, and you somehow managed to rebuild the Dark Kingdom – my home – and calm the Moonstone. We won't ask how you did it if you're not comfortable with it, but please know that we are forever in your debt."

"Gil…?" Delicate fingers wrapped around his arm. A queen's hands, slight but true. "It's okay, I promise we don't bite."

Slowly, Gil looked up, towards the sight he had been avoiding for so long.

Queen Rapunzel and King Eugene were just as startlingly fair as their pictures, just and royal and good, and Gil wanted to flinch away from them, but he had to- he had to press on.

He swallowed, trying to clear away the lump in his throat. "I don't want a parade," he said quietly. "Or a statue."

"How do you feel about paintings?" The king offered.

Gil shuddered. "I'd take a statue over a painting."

"Good, good," the king was nodding to himself. "This feels like progress."

"No big parties," Queen Rapunzel agreed, and her eyes were tinged with moisture, as though Gil's pain somehow echoed as her own. "But you will be remembered, Gil. You have to give us that."

"…okay," he said eventually, because there was nothing else he could do. Belatedly, he realized he should be smiling, but the tears that managed to leak from the corners of his eyes might give such things away as insincere. "Okay."

Behind them, Jay watched the proceedings with a tired grin, and Gil still didn't know how he felt about that- his bones still singing the song of betrayal-trayal-trayal, but Gil was too exhausted to think about it, needed to give too much to his maybe-family members to spare anything for Jay.

That pain would come later.

But it would come.

-:-:-:-:-:-

"What the hell happened?!"

Gil wasn't surprised when Mal and Uma immediately swarmed when they returned to the royal guest quarters, but that didn't make it less overwhelming. On reflex, Gil retreated a step from their forceful presence before realizing it brought him closer to Jay, and ended up flinching away from him in response.

Jay watched the exchange with sad eyes, but Gil didn't have time to spare for him because Uma was there, Harry half a step behind her, and both of them were too busy wrapping Gil up in their arms to worry about anything else.

"Jay." Mal was pressing a manicured finger against his chest, her eyes narrowed in displeasure. "What was that?"

"Are you okay?" Uma whispered, thumbing the dry tear tracks on Gil's cheeks. "Baby?"

"M'fine." Gil leaned into the touch, muttering the words by rote before he realized he wasn't fine. He really wasn't. He ducked his head against Harry's shoulder to make up for it, taking comfort in his presence. "Are you guys okay?"

"We're not the ones that put on a little show," Harry muttered, toying with the end of Gil's ponytail.

Oh. He needed- the bandana. No formal parties meant he could hide his stupid hair away again.

"Everyone just calm down," Ben soothed, urging Mal to give Jay some space. "We can talk about this when everyone's settled."

"No," Mal's voice was like venom, but she only had eyes for Jay. "We don't keep secrets from each other, and this? This is a pretty big secret. You need to explain yourself, Jay."

"It's my fault," Gil cut in before Jay could reply, pulling away from Harry and Uma so he could face Mal on his own. "I um… asked him to."

When Mal's gaze cut towards him, it was tinged with more green than purple, furious in its intensity. "We'll get to that later," she decided. "But Jay-" She turned her displeasure back on the other teen. "-should know better."

"Why don't we take a few steps back?" Evie offered, breaking her silence with an easy sort of grace. "Just so we're all on the same page. Gil-" She offered him a small grin. "Was the one who managed to restore the Dark Kingdom and rescue the Moonstone from Cassandra. But because of… his own reasons," she decided, putting it as nicely as possible. "He asked Jay to take credit for it."

"Magic boy was happy being in the spotlight until now," Harry summarized, shifting so that he stood beside Gil, one hand resting on the base of his neck. "What changed?"

"That doesn't matter," Carlos' voice was flat when he cut into the conversation, detached enough that Jane shot him concerned glance from where she stood beside him. "What matters is that Jay kept it a secret from us. Keeping it from the rest of the world is fine, but not us. We share everything, that's supposed to be one of the rules."

Rules for what, Gil wondered, but now really wasn't the time to ask.

"Maybe he was waiting?" Doug offered – always the logical one, tentative but level-headed.

"For what, the day he died?"

"Carlos." Jane braced a hand against his elbow, and to her credit Carlos didn't shake it off, even if it looked like he wanted to.

"Gil." Uma's voice was calm but relentless, her gaze fixed to him with unwavering focus. "Why did you ask Jay to lie for you?"

The sour feeling that had been growing in his stomach built to one of lead, everything seeming unmovable, unyielding. She was his captain, and he had to answer his captain even if his fingers itched for his bandana, even if he wanted to go hide in their borrowed ship and sail away until he never had to look at people again.

"Harry." Gil hadn't expected Jay's interruption, but the other teen's gaze was on the first mate, looking more worn than Gil had ever seen him. "That special compartment Gil had you make in his gloves? Pull it back."

It felt like the floor had dropped out from under him.

"N-No, Harry-" Gil wanted to pull away but Uma had her arms around him and he didn't want to hurt her, didn't want to flinch away and break her accidentally. He tried to keep the gloves away from Harry's prying hands but Jay had charged in, pushed Gil's wrist until the Moonstone was revealed-

He closed his eyes when he felt his hair reacting, a golden warmth that spread down to his toes and seeped through his eyelids. He could hear their gasps, felt Harry's confusion through his arms but he didn't want to see it.

"…Gil," Uma said, her voice a quiet sort of wonder, like when Ben had given her a new ship for her birthday or Harry had created her a gown all from scratch.

That wasn't meant for him- certainly not for his dumb hair and a shining rock. That was supposed to be reserved for special things and not random happenstance, not magic powers that didn't have any reason being in the son of Gaston.

Eventually, after what seemed like forever, Gil felt Jay tug the material back over the Moonstone, his hair falling a second after, resting back against his shoulders. As soon as it landed, Gil stepped back, fumbling for the bandana he had hidden inside his vest.

It was Mal's voice who broke the silence.

"Gil," she said quietly. "How long have you known?"

"I didn't-" Gil flinched, shoving the bandana on his head with shaky fingers. "I didn't. There- when Jay and I got lost in Apheliotia, something happened but I didn't know what, and then the-" He shoved the ponytail up under the rest of the material. "I didn't know. I don't know."

"Gil." Ben was stepping forward now, taking slow, measured steps. "We need to tell the King and Queen."

"No." Why couldn't Jay have listened to him? Why couldn't he just be a glory hog? Harry would have done it for Gil. Maybe he should have asked the first mate to travel with them, because he thought he could trust Jay but he couldn't. "Please, don't."

"Why don't we talk about this tomorrow?" Jane offered, breaking in tentatively. "When we're all rested? It's been a long night."

A long night, a long week. None of them were probably going to get any sleep and yet here they were anyway, pretending they could reach some level of normalcy when Gil had lied to them. Lied to his captain. He'd betrayed them because he'd been scared, but that wasn't an excuse. He had just- he'd hoped things could go back to normal, that they could pretend that everything was fine and Jay could get the glory he deserved and Gil could fade into the background like he was supposed to, but now he was a hero and soon he might be more and he wanted none of it.

He missed his Uncle LeFou. He missed slow days at the Chip Shoppe where all he had to do was move tables. He missed fireworks. They had seemed so scary before, but now he missed them, because even if they were loud, he knew what he was supposed to do when faced with them.

"Okay," Ben decided, because he was the one that took over when both groups of VKs were compromised, acting as the neutral voice of reason, even if Mal had literally bewitched him once upon a time. Then again, so had Uma, so he probably was neutral. "Everyone just… try to get some sleep."

It was permission they hadn't realized they'd been waiting for, and almost immediately everyone split into their own groups. Jay reached for Mal but she ignored him, brushing past him and Ben, her delicate train dragging behind her in a furious shift. Ben spared Jay an apologetic look before following after her, Evie half a step behind him, likely trying to talk the future Queen into a state of calm.

Carlos had already shrunk in on himself, withdrawing into the shadows towards what was technically Evie's room where he would either clean or start tinkering on his next invention, sleep elusive for now. Jane seemed torn, looking between his retreating back and Jay, but Doug nudged her onward, already crossing towards the wayward son of Jafar. He pulled him towards Jane's assigned room, Jay following helplessly, almost seeming like a boat adrift at sea, its sails torn and ruined.

For whatever reason, Uma and Harry hadn't left Gil's side, though whether that was out of obligation or actual choice, Gil did not know.

"Gilly…" Gil couldn't read Harry's expression, but it seemed more soft than angry, the grip on his elbow apologetic. "C'mon, let's go."

"Okay." Gil would take their generosity while he had it because at heart, he wasn't brave (and who would want that? A coward for a hero). He allowed Harry to tug him towards Uma's room, their captain following behind them with silent footsteps.

She hadn't started yelling yet – normally she would have done that by now, would have explained all the things Gil had done wrong so he could avoid them in the future, though he was pretty sure there couldn't be a repeat performance of this. It unnerved him that she was still quiet even as Harry pulled him into the large bed, but maybe she was taking Ben's order to heart. There would be yelling later. In the morning.

For now, there was Harry's open arms and Uma's solid presence against his back, the two of them cradling him with such care that Gil wanted to cry again had he the tears. He wasn't sure he'd be able to sleep, but then Uma began humming an old sea shanty – something they'd chant back on the Lost Revenge, and between that comforting familiarity and his own exhaustion, Gil stumbled into an uneasy sleep.

-:-:-:-:-:-

He slipped out of bed in the early hours of the morning when he could no longer stay still, somehow managing to escape Harry and Uma's hold despite their firm grips. He couldn't run but his legs needed to move anyway, to find one last bout of freedom before it got stripped away with this horrible uncertainty. Gil let his feet guide him to another set of gardens off the beaten path, moving to find a tree that would allow him to see over the walls. He wanted to watch the sun rise over the Interceptor bobbing in the harbor, wanted to feel something close to normal before everything broke down into arguments and negotiations.

Unfortunately, Gil never made it to the tree.

Halfway across the garden the world around him exploded in a ray of bright light, a thing so fierce it blocked out the sight of trees and grass and stone until Gil was left in a sort of void, bobbing for all of a second before flying, tumbling – movement without his body shifting a muscle and it was terrifying, like the world had dropped out from under him, and then-

And then he landed, not in the gardens but in some kind of workshop? A wooden house with a sort of laboratory setup. Familiar black spikes seemed to be driving up from the floor, and there was a large sort of rock fixture in the middle of the room. No, it was- Gil didn't know what it was, but it was yellow, and there seemed to be a man trapped inside?

"There!" Belatedly, Gil registered a small teenager decked out in inventor's gear, too-large goggles balancing on a messy flop of hair. "I did it!"

"Did what?" Gil asked, then looked down at the ground around him, noticing for the first time that he was in the center of a large detailed diagram. "Did you teleport me?"

"I did better than that!" the teen- not cheered, but boasted? He seemed mad. "Since I can't get Rapunzel's help, I summoned the future of her line to help me!"

Oh, that was- that was not good. That was- why hadn't he teleported Ruby? Ruby would make more sense, she was actually Queen Rapunzel's kid.

Unless, did that mean-?

"Varian-" Off near the far wall seemed to be Queen um- what was her name? The one before Rapunzel. Except she looked way younger – not a gray hair in sight, and she was shackled to the floor for some reason. "You can still undo this. Some things shouldn't be messed with."

"Well, I mean, it's already done," Gil offered, trying to be practical. He wasn't feeling all that great about some random teenager alluding to the thing he had been steadily ignoring, but you couldn't win them all. "Does he need help?" Gil pointed to the man trapped in the yellow stuff.

Varian – the teen, Gil guessed – sort of blinked at him, then recovered. "Yes, obviously. I need your hair to-" He frowned. "Where's the rest of your hair?"

"That is a long story I don't have the answer to," Gil replied honestly. "But um, I think I have something else that could work."

In truth, Gil didn't really know what he was doing, but if he was here anyway, he could- he wasn't sure, but doing something useful seemed appropriate. Maybe he could get them to promise to forget about him if he did this.

Yeah, that sounded good.

"Do you have a ladder?" Gil asked, shifting his weight nervously.

Varian didn't respond.

"…So I could reach his face?" Gil continued. The guy was high up. "I should probably get his head out first."

"Um…" Varian didn't seem to know what to do. "Yeah, over here."

They worked together to position the ladder, Gil climbing up it with confident movements until he reached the dude's face. He wasn't sure how he knew the guy was still alive, but there was a faint sort of pulsing through the crystal. Like he was being preserved, Gil guessed. He didn't know.

He reached up to remove his bandana. "Okay so like, my hair's going to start glowing, so don't freak out about that."

"Rapunzel's hair glows," Varian said, like this explained everything. On the far side of the room, Queen whatever was still silent. Gil should probably learn her name since she was related to him, he guessed.

"Alright," Gil said. "And um- I only just figured out how to do this a couple days ago, so I'm still working the kinks out, but I'm pretty sure I can get him free just- oh, don't tell anyone about this. Yeah." That covered all their bases. "I'm just gonna-"

He pulled back the pocket that hid the Moonstone, feeling his hair stir to life in gentle curls. He ignored the gasp he heard from the young queen and pressed his hand against the yellow crystal, focusing his attention on melting it away. He had done that back in the Dark Kingdom, had undone the spikes and changed them into those beautiful buildings they had always wanted to be. This crystal had been some kind of chemical reaction, indestructible but not intentional, which allowed Gil to sort of peel it away from the guy within.

By the time the man's head and shoulders were free, Gil had worked up a fine sweat, but kept going.

"You're doing it." Varian watched from the base of the ladder, expression mixed with disbelief and hope. "I thought I'd have to- my drill."

"I'm sure you had a good plan," Gil gasped between breaths. "But um- sometimes you have to adapt."

"But you're-" Varian frowned. "Why are you helping me?"

"Technically, I'm helping him," Gil said. "And I'm helping him because he's, you know- trapped. And being trapped sucks."

"I was- I had planned on threatening your grandmother to get you to help."

"That's a um… bit of an extreme response," Gil replied, really not liking that 'g' word. "Maybe just try asking first next time."

"Yeah," Varian said quietly. "I guess I could have done that."

"I mean, to be fair, your very complicated plan is what got me here in the first place, and um- got this guy halfway out." Gil was at his waist now, and it got easier the longer it went on, even though he was beginning to feel tired. "So like, I dunno, maybe try a little of column A and a little of column B. That might work going forward."

"…you are very much your mother's son," Varian said, finally.

If the 'g' word had been bad, that was- that was so much worse.

But definitely not something Gil was going to think about.

So Gil shrugged, keeping his eyes on the trapped guy's knees. "Agree to disagree." Wait. "So um- this wasn't just teleportation, was it?"

"What?" He could feel Varian blink. "Oh. No, it's time travel. I um-" He seemed bashful now, for whatever reason. "I summoned you from the future."

"Huh." That was one way to solve a problem. "Okay, he's good to go."

The table and other furniture that had been trapped in the crystal fell back into place, and between Varian and Gil they managed to catch the trapped-unconscious man and rest him on the ground.

Okay, so um- looked like he needed some healing magic then. Which was fine, only-

"So um…" Gil frowned. "I've never healed anyone on purpose."

"What?"

"Like," Gil flushed. "It was an accident. Heat of the moment? I don't know how to do it intentionally."

He guessed that was what he did in Apheliotia and Inca. Like, in hindsight it made sense.

Shyly, he turned his gaze towards the old/young queen. "Do you know?"

The queen blinked. She had been mostly silent up to this point, though Gil supposed that wasn't a bad idea when you were taken hostage. "Rapunzel had a song, something that woman used to sing to her."

"Oh." That was right, he remembered Mother Gothel ranting about that once. "Do you know it or um- should I sing my own?"

The queen seemed confused. "Maybe try your own."

"Alright." Gil nodded. At this point, he knew plenty of songs – sea shanties and dwarven chants and jungle cries – but she said it should be his, and Gil had only been given one song before, and it wasn't really his, but one he had stolen. He thought back to that tune Uma had sung to Harry, the one that had gotten Gil through the last two accidental healings, the one he'd caught through the crack in the door, Uma knowing he was on guard but not caring if he heard.

Gil cleared his throat, grabbing the unconscious guy's hand and raising it to his hair, and started to hum.

He felt his hair shine with a familiar warmth, felt it pulse through the man's arm until it lit his body, until that healing energy emanated through him like it had that one time with Jay. Gil dropped his arm when the man's eyes began to blink open, swiftly covering the Moonstone back up again and letting his hair fall back to his shoulders.

"…dad?" Varian said, his eyes shining with unrestrained tears. "Dad!"

He launched himself forward as the man – his father – sat up, holding him close and sobbing, muttering nonsense that Gil knew he shouldn't listen to. Without being asked, he stepped away, deciding to give them some space by reaching out to the old queen.

"Hey," he offered when he made it to her side. "Let me just-" He used the Moonstone to summon one of those spikes to break the chain around her ankle, then let it sink back into the earth. "Are you okay?"

She stared at him like a thing of wonder. Gil hated it a lot. "Yes, I'm alright."

"So um…" He looked back to where Varian was hugging his dad. "So I know that kidnapping is bad, and messing with time is also like, bad, but the guy was just trying to get his dad back, so like-" Gil frowned. He didn't want Varian to end up on the Isle of the Lost, not when his only crime had been love. "Could you protect him? Maybe have him work off his punishment instead of imprisoning him?" Gil settled on. "He seems really smart, he'd be way more use to you in a lab, and." He frowned. "He's young. He might be a smart young guy, but he's still young, and young people do dumb things when they're scared." Like kidnap queens and run away and summon people through time. "So could you be lenient, I guess?"

The queen considered this. "What's your name?"

"What?" That was not the response Gil had been expecting.

"Your name?" she pressed.

Gil shrugged. He didn't want to tell her his real name, because it wasn't really a name, it was just what his Uncle LeFou had given him because his dad couldn't be bothered.

But she didn't ask for his real name, just a name, and Gil had at least a fake one of those given to him by a king once upon a time. "Flynn."

She laughed. "That figures."

He didn't know why though.

"Those books," she murmured, mostly to herself, wiping a tear from her eye. Eventually, she recomposed herself. "Alright, Flynn. I'll ask my husband to be lenient with Varian's punishment."

"Maybe make some kind of parole?" Gil offered, parroting the word from Doug. "You could have his dad enforce it. Or you. But-" He shrugged. "Thank you."

"Thank you," she said, and she was grinning so fondly Gil thought he might shake apart, because he didn't really deserve it.

"Um, if you'll just um- excuse me." He motioned back towards Varian before escaping like the coward he was. "Hey," he said when he got closer to their huddle. "Not to interrupt, but can you send me home?"

Varian blinked at him, dried tear tracks on his face. "I um… may not have planned that far ahead."

"Varian." Gil would not panic because it wouldn't help him, but also he couldn't spend the rest of his life in the past. "I have people to get back to."

Granted, they weren't happy people, but they were still his.

"I know, I know-" Varian huffed.

"What's he talking about?" Varian's father asked. Eventually, his gaze settled on the diagram that had summoned Gil. "Varian, you didn't."

"He did," Gil said lightly. "But it worked out, so."

"Messing with very fabric of reality is no small matter-"

"But it already happened," Gil interrupted so they could get back on track. "So like, if we could just undo it, I would appreciate it."

Varian was already thinking. "I'll need to redo the math. Do you-" He started inspecting Gil. "Do you have anything on you from a person from your time period? Something you don't mind losing? We could use it as an anchor."

Gil considered the array of accessories still on him from the ball the night before. "Yeah, I've got something that will work."

"Then I can fix this," Varian declared.

Gil mostly hoped he was right.

-:-:-:-:-:-

In the time that Varian frantically redid his math, Gil learned that the Queen's name was Arianna and that the man he had saved was Quirin – who had recognized the Moonstone in the brief moment it had been revealed and looked at Gil like he was an unfathomable thing, which seemed to be the running theme of this encounter. Apparently Quirin was a loyal subject of the Dark Kingdom under King Edmund, who was apparently King Eugene's father.

"Look," Gil said when the silence got too much. "I can't really tell you guys anything, I don't think." He had probably already messed up time by freeing Quirin and protecting Varian from the Isle.

"You wield the Moonstone," Quirin pressed, looking very stoic and determined and all the things a good general was.

At this time, Queen Rapunzel and her friends hadn't actually traveled to the Dark Kingdom yet, which Gil felt sort of terrible about because he probably should warn them about Cassandra but also he felt like it might break reality if he did.

So he didn't, but he felt really bad about it.

"Sort of," Gil allowed. It was more like he had wandered nearby and the Moonstone had demanded to be used, which wasn't that impressive. "But other things need to happen before I get it, so if you could just pretend not to know about this, that'd be… good."

"And you undo the spikes?" Quirin pressed, not really getting the Gil can't talk about it thing.

"Yeah."

"How old are you?" Queen Arianna asked.

"Guys," Gil said to get around the question, because he didn't actually know the answer to it. "Just know that it's going to be awhile before we see each other again." This was literally the first time he'd seen Varian and Quirin, and Queen Arianna had only looked at him from a distance before turning away. "We can talk about this when I get back." Or they wouldn't. Gil didn't even know if Varian escaped the Isle. "It's fine."

"'It's fine', he says," Varian muttered, hashing out random calculations while clutching one of the bracelets Ben had given Gil. "Like we're not going to have to wait eighteen years or whatever while you wait like, five seconds."

"This is what you get for messing with time travel, man." Gil shrugged, unapologetic. "I don't know what you want from me."

"You're such your dad's kid," Varian snarled, but he seemed to use his frustration to further hash out his work, so Gil didn't take it personally.

He should probably object to all the prince stuff they inadvertently kept shoving his way, but Gil decided that would be a future problem. They could all laugh about it maybe if they ever saw him again.

And hopefully they wouldn't, because Gil was going to try very hard to avoid them.

It was all good.

-:-:-:-:-:-

"Okay," Varian said when Gil was set up on the new diagram. "This is a copy of my notes." He handed Gil a journal that had hastily scribbled research inside. "When you give them to future me, I'll know we've had this conversation and we can get some answers."

"By then you'll probably already have the answers," Gil reminded him, but took the journal anyway, tucking it into his jacket.

"Now," Varian continued, blithely ignoring him. "The remnants of this bracelet should teleport you to whoever gave it to you in your time period." Meaning Ben. "Give or take a few feet. Didn't want you to land right on top of them."

"Thoughtful," Gil said, earning a grin from Queen Arianna.

"That's everything," Varian declared. "I'm going to initialize the reaction and then you should go back the same way you came, okay?"

"Okay." Gil nodded, switching his gaze to the Queen. "And you promise to take care of Varian?"

"I promise," the queen said, her gaze solemn. Gil had already gotten her to write it down on paper, to sign and date it. And while Gil couldn't take a copy of it with him, he made sure Quirin got one, because at the very least he would want what was best for his son.

Varian pouted. "I don't need you to take care of me. I can deal with the consequences of my actions."

No he couldn't if that led him to the Isle, but Gil didn't say that. "Yeah, but we agreed that no one really got hurt by this. Like, the forbidden magic wasn't really great, but everything else worked out for the best."

Varian rolled his eyes, but still seemed fond. "Can't wait until I actually meet you."

"It'll be a bit longer than you'd expect," Gil replied.

With that, there was nothing left to be said, so Varian initiated the teleportation. Just like before, the world around Gil was consumed in a relentless light, and then he was gone again.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Endnotes:

For those of you unfamiliar with the Tangled animated series, I did a sort of crossover/twist of canon from the show. Quirin does get stuck in amber in the show and Varian comes up with a detailed plan to free him that involves tricking Rapunzel into helping him. In this particular universe, Varian also resorted to magic to solve his problems (he's strictly an alchemist/inventor in the show), which ultimately mitigates the need for the happenings of the final episode of season one of Rapunzel's Tangled Adventures.

…I don't know if I explained that well at all, but the short of it is – that wasn't all a hundred percent my plot. The time travel bit – yes, entirely my plot. Gil saving the day with the Moonstone, that one's mine, but the rest was canon from the show :)

PS – Varian isn't entirely in character for this because at the time of writing I had only seen a few clips of the show where he was mad, which made me think he was a lot more sarcastic and snarky than he actually is. In the show, he's like, the happiest fluffball that ever did fluff, unless you cross him.

Until next time :)