One-Shot Summary: Varian comes to terms that things are a lot more complicated than he thought, and that he may not have changed as much as he thought.

Juliet smiled at him and reached over to take his hand in his. The sun perfectly caught her curly hair, which for once was pulled down to frame her face, which Varian far and away considered the prettiest face he ever saw. The ground was soft under his boot and he looked down at her bare feet, barely containing a chortle.

"Have you really never considered using shoes?"

Juliet rolled her eyes. "'Rian, shoes are a barrier between the world and you."

Varian stepped closer to her and brushed away some of her curls, so her chocolate colored eyes were in full view. Her eyes were so captivating to look at and he wished he got to see them more – they were most assuredly her most alluring feature.

"Jules, as long as it doesn't create a barrier between me and you, I don't really care," Varian said. Juliet punched his shoulder lightly as a bee flew by them, on the way to the hive resting in the near tree.

"Very smooth, Romeo," Juliet teased. Varian flashed what his best attempt at a million-dollar smile.

"Well, I already have a Juliet."

Juliet frowned in confusion. "Don't they both die?"

Varian shook his head and leaned his forehead against hers. "Jules, if you start questioning it, the whole thing falls apart."

Varian.

Juliet looked up at form under her eyelashes, her breath warm on his nose. He slipped an arm around her waist that came to rest at the small of her back, while she slipped both of her arms around his neck. His eyes traveled down to her lips and she did the same to his.

"Juliet…."

Varian.

"'Rian…" she whispered in that soft tone she had only used once before. He felt his heart quicken as he leaned down to kiss her, his lips just inches from hers…

VARIAN!

"Ahhh!" He rolled off his wooden cot and onto the cobble floor. He spit out the dirt that had rose up into his mouth with disdain and rolled onto his back, not moving from his position on the ground.

He frowned up at the ceiling, finding growing frustration at the person that had decided to wake him up. They couldn't have given him just five more seconds? It seemed every morning he was woken up at the perfect time for his dreams – right before he finally kissed her, right before she finally opened the door to find him free from prison, right before he finally managed to catch her in that eternal dreamland she rested in.

Had it really been only a month since Juliet had left with Rudiger?

"Varian?"

Varian looked up from his position on the floor to find the less than thrilled face of Cassandra and the concerned look of Rapunzel. For half a second, he expected that tug of affection for Cassandra but was excited to find that it wasn't there anymore. He supposed basically falling madly in love with someone else will help quell feelings for another person.

"Oh, Rapunzel, Cassandra," Varian greeted with a nod, rising to a standing position. He wiped the dust off his tan pants and walked over to the bars. "Lovely to see you."

Cassandra raised an eyebrow and looked over at Rapunzel. "This is Varian?"

Varian frowned. He was standing right here – of course it was him! Okay, so they hadn't talked directly since the night he had gone completely crazy and tried to kill her, but still he couldn't have changedthat much. Besides you know, the obvious thing that he was no longer the holder of murderous range.

"Yep," Rapunzel said, popping the p. "This is Post-Juliet Varian."

"Post-Juliet?" Varian whispered to himself. He shook his head and looked up at the two older females, a (semi)teasing smirk on his lips. "Well, I assume you didn't come down here to take in the view. What can I do for you?"

"As much as it pains me to say this, we need your help," Cassandra said with a frown. Varian raised an eyebrow at them.

"You want my help?" He laughed heartily. "Oh goodness, Cassie, that was a good one." Cassandra's brows furrowed, and he stepped closer to the bars with narrowed eyes.

"Okay, first, Varian it's Cass not Cassie," she said. "We've been over this like a million times."

"It's almost like I do it to annoy you," Varian said. Varian – while no longer angry enough to go about conducting acts of treason and terrorism – often directed his lingering aggression towards annoying literally everyone who came by his cell. Guards, Rapunzel, even that therapist that was sent down once a week was subject to his sarcastic decision.

Cassandra threw her hands and turned towards Rapunzel. "You were wrong, Raps, he's still the same, except now he's more annoying than Ryder."

"Eugene isn't annoying, Cass," Rapunzel said, pointedly using her boyfriend's legal name. "And you've only been talking with Varian for two minutes, give him a chance."

"Yeah, give him a chance," Varian echoed humorlessly. Cassandra's beleaguered sigh was not all that surprising as she turned back around to face him.

"Okay, Varian, listen up because I'm not telling you twice," Cassandra said, crossing her arms over her chest. "The rocks led us to this box in the literal middle of nowhere a few months back. We thought it was just sort of a coincidence, because we couldn't find anything in it. But then we found these weird scrolls at your old house that said if you used the right potion, you could uncover words written across it. We need your help making it."

"Interesting story, Cass," Varian said. "But potions? I'm an alchemist, not a wizard. Besides, the last potion I made did not turn out well."

The image of Rudiger mutated beyond recognition flashed in his mind's eye.

"Oh, come on, tell me you're not at least a little interested by this," Rapunzel said, a good-natured tease in her voice. "A secret box that needs a secret potion to open?"

Okay, so maybe he was a little lot interested. But come on, who wouldn't be? It must have been some kind of invisible ink scrawled across the box – and a very rare kind, if the ink was supposedly still on the wooden item. Regular ink normally just bleeds down the side of the chests it was applied too and if it was some kind of long-lasting-invisible ink. That must make the consistency of the chemical thicker than ail but still light enough to be easily applicable – hold up, he was getting ahead of himself.

"Potions aren't my thing, I only used them when necessary," Varian insisted. Rapunzel sighed and brushed that one ever present strand stuck in her face away.

"Varian, we found some stuff in your old house that once belonged to your dad," Rapunzel said. Varian raised an eyebrow.

"Well, he did use to live there," Varian said.

"No, Varian," Rapunzel said, frowning. "Things that can't be explained. Strange markings on suits of armor, books and books about items written in languages we've never even heard of, and – and a map that led to Juliet's island."

At that his mind stopped for a moment. Since when did Dad have a suit of armor? Or an ample collection of books? Or know different languages, at least more than the one or two he had passed to Varian? And why had he owned a map to Juliet's island? Had he known she was there? If not or if so, had she known people knew where she was?

"Okay, so my dad had afew secrets and sketchy things in his past?" Varian brushed off. "If I remember correctly, everyone has secrets."

"From the way things are looking, it seems your father's secrets had secrets," Cassandra said. Varian frowned at them and clung onto the bars tightly, his familiar glare once again signaling them out.

"Everyone has a right to keep secrets," Varian said in a harsh tone, his inflection barely dancing over a whisper. "What exactly are you implying he was up to?"

"Varian, we aren't implying anything, we promise –"

"Don't. You. Dare."

"Here we go again," Cassandra whispered under her breath, looking up at the ceiling.

"Varian –"

"Rapunzel—"

"After everything that you have done and every promise you broke, don't you dare start accusing my father of anything!" Varian snarled.

"I'm not!" Rapunzel insisted. "These are facts. Your father had secrets. Those secrets might be able to help us now. And we need your help to understand them. That is the reason we're here, not to shove accusations in your face!"

Varian felt his anger stew inside him and all that pain he felt was once again rising to the surface. He thought he had moved past all that anger – or at least, in the words of that confound therapist, starting to work though it. But it's like all his pain and anger was attacking him at once as the words spilled out of Rapunzel and Cassandra. He shut his eyes and thought back to what the therapist had said – how to calm down, how to get back to center.

One. Two. Three.

Dad and him in their cabbage fields, a laugh escaping him as his brunet father fell in the mud with a good-natured smile.

Four. Five. Six.

Rudiger scuttering around the lab, the twittering of his mouth calling something to him, a nice hum that cancelled out the silence.

Seven. Eight. Nine.

Juliet's hair, so soft as he placed the flower in her hair, a surprised look in her brown eyes.

Ten.

He let out a deep breath as he felt calm overtake him. Okay, take a step back, look at it again. Logic told him that they weren't accusing him of anything, that his former (?) aggression was getting in the way of what they were asking him to do.

Logic. That's the key. Look at this with logic, like the semi-pre-professional fifteen (going on sixteen) alchemist he was.

"Where did they find this stuff? Who found them?" Varian asked after a moment. He forced his tone and expression to be neutral, which Cassandra and Rapunzel responded too with befuddled expressions. The sudden tone shift was a bit of a shock, he would concede, but seriously? Silence?

"Uh, guys?" Varian prompted again with a raised eyebrow. Rapunzel shook her head to clear it and crossed her arms behind her back.

"Xavier found them hidden in the walls of your house," Rapunzel answered.

"When?"

"About a week ago," Cassandra said.

"And you're just telling me now, because…."

"It took a couple days to translate them," Rapunzel said. She reached up to twirl a strand of her hair nervously.

"And…? Who did you guys find to translate them?" Varian asked. Cassandra sighed and stepped forward, her boots clicking against the floor.

"Juliet," Cassandra said simply.

Juliet? It was a mystery that she could even read at all or speak in a language they could understand, she had only been off that island for seven months. The only remnants of her old life pre-island were a tattered locket emblazoned with the word 'Ina' (which she kept hidden under her collar) and that ring, or at least that was all he had been told. No books, no chests, no boxes, just that. How had she learned distant and strange languages? How was she able to translate them?

"It's a mystery to her as well," Rapunzel said, seeing his thoughts clearly. Why was his best friend/kind-of-sort-of-girlfriend such an enigma? "It appears to be the outlines for a fairly complicated potion, which is why we need your help."

"Why not Xavier? Or Juliet? They're already there and know what's up," Varian said.

"We'll need two people, and we discovered pretty quickly that no one except Xavier really knew what we were doing," Cassandra said. "Juliet nearly blew up an entire street and Fitzerbert turned all of our hair blue for an hour."

Varian snorted at the thought of them with blue hair, before remembering that he at least partially had blue hair.

"So, what is it exactly you want me to do?" Varian asked, casually leaning forward against the steel.

"Come with us to Old Corona," Rapunzel said.

"Under conditional release," Cassandra interjected, narrowing her eyes. "Handcuffs, constant surveillance, and you will not be allowed to speak with Juliet alone ever."

Varian opened his mouth to argue, but Cassandra shut him down with one stern look. "You guys broke out of jail together. Even if she isn't a wanted criminal anymore, we're not putting you in the same room by yourselves."

Okay, so maybe that was a smart decision on the part of Corona it did little to make him okay with it. He had things he wanted to discuss with Juliet that he really didn't in front of other people but had nothing to do with revenge or treason.

"Alright," he said, crossing his arms.

"What?" the said in unison. He raised an eyebrow.

"Really, you're agreeing, just like that?" Cassandra asked.

"Would you rather me argue?" he asked.

"No, no, no…" she assured, before smiling. Cassandra turned towards Rapunzel and crossed her arms. "I like Post-Juliet Varian."

Varian frowned. "What does that even mean?"

I'm back! For all those not in the know, this is a sort of sequel to my one-shot gallery "These Runaways Will Run the Night" which introduced Juliet. All the stories in here featuring Juliet will be written under the impression that the readers have read them, because it establishes how Juliet met Varian, how confusing their relationship is, and what her abilities are.

New and old readers alike, I welcome you here! Unlike 'TRWRtN' this has no specific end in mind – just kind of ideas that come to me! This one was 'bleh', but I wanted to establish where Varian stands currently in terms of redemption. He's getting there, but not quite.

The calming down sequence was played by ear, so if anyone has a better way to calm down people, let me know. I'm not a therapist.

Also, I thought Frederic's name was spelled Fredrick. In the Juliet! Verse, it will be spelled the latter, and in stories lacking Juliet's existence, it will be spelled Frederic. Sound good?

This was supposed to be a really fluffy one-shot where Juliet comes back to visit him, but then I was like "Cassandra deserves some more content" so this happened. I hope she's okay – I'm not against her as a character, but not her biggest fan either. I didn't really come around to her until "Secret of the Sundrop" and then I was like 'oh, I get it now'.

Don't forget to follow, favorite, and review!

- Princess Chess