Chapter 6

Rapunzel breathes in the night air as she gazes out at the ocean. The water is a deep blue from the reflection of the starry sky, and the moonlight glistens off the surface of the rippling waves.

She can see all of Corona from her balcony, the streets illuminated with lights that appear tiny from up here. She sees every edge of the city and the vast bridge below that connects the island to the mainland. Only thick treetops are visible from here, and she wonders what mysteries she has yet to find within the never-ending forest. For many nights, she has stared out at it from a distance and wondered how far the land would go if she kept running toward the horizon.

The only problem is that now she fears she will never have the chance to find out. After she is married, she'll somehow be even more trapped than she was before. Maybe her life really is over now.

Rapunzel sighs. She crosses her arms over the railing of her balcony, resting her head atop her hands tiredly.

A few moments later, the princess jumps in surprise when she hears a heavy bang behind her followed by a short scream.

She whips around just in time to see none other than Flynn Rider hanging from the roof of her bedroom, who loses his grip and tumbles heavily to the ground with a thud.

She stares down in bewilderment at the man's crippled body that is now somehow laying in front of her. "Flynn?" she marvels.

"Ow…" he groans, writhing on the ground, "Okay, that was supposed to go a lot smoother."

"What are you doing here?" she lowers her volume, suddenly panicked about someone seeing him. "Didn't I tell you to stop following me?"

Flynn painfully rises to his feet, brushing off the sleeves of his tunic, "You did. You did do that."

However, when he looks up at her, he clears his throat nervously.

He realizes this is the first time he's seen her looking like an actual princess and not wearing a hood that casts shadows over her eyes. She's wearing a pink silk dress with a fitted corset and her long golden hair flows down to her waist like a waterfall. She almost looks like a completely different person from the one he had met in the marketplace, but he swears he has never seen a more beautiful girl in his life.

Rapunzel peers up at the roof Flynn had apparently just been standing on, oblivious to his thoughts. "How did you even get up there?" They are pretty high up right now, with Rapunzel's bedroom located in one of the tallest towers of the castle, but she knows there are guards patrolling basically every inch of this place below.

"You do know I've scaled this castle before, right?" He snickers briefly, "I mean, I actually had the blueprints to this place at one point, but you know what, let's not talk about that," he quickly changes the subject upon noticing the princess' shocked expression at that little bit of information.

Well, Rapunzel shouldn't say she is entirely surprised. It seems he always has a way of finding her when she least expects it.

Flynn saunters over to the edge, standing next to her. "I am here because… well, this funny thing happened to me the other day. You see, I found this lying around…" he pulls out Rapunzel's gold chain bracelet, "…and I thought it would be the decent thing for me to return it to its owner so… you're welcome."

Rapunzel glances at the jewelry dangling off his finger. She glares up at him with her arms crossed, refusing to take it. "How'd you know it was mine?"

Flynn looks away, "Uh…"

"I don't suppose your criminal record would have anything to do with it going missing, would it?" Rapunzel asks smugly with half-lidded eyes.

"…Okay, maybe I did steal it. But the important thing here is that I gave it back, right?" He rests his elbow on the railing, leaning toward her as his voice lowers. "And who knows, maybe I stole it specifically so that I would have an excuse to give it back to you."

Rapunzel blushes at that. If she's honest, she doesn't much care about the bracelet anyway. "Well then… thank you," Rapunzel smirks, deciding to go along with it. His ability to lie so easily is somehow amusing to her.

She lets him clasp it around her wrist and the silence that follows make her heart pound. She looks away when she realizes how close he is standing to her now.

Thankfully she is saved by Cassandra's muffled voice who wanders out of Rapunzel's bedroom a second later, sounding annoyed, "Rapunzel! I've been calling you for like five minutes—"

Cassandra freezes in the doorway just as Rapunzel and Flynn turn their heads in her direction. They all stop and stare at each other with wide eyes for at least five seconds before Flynn breaks the silence, "Hi," he waves awkwardly.

Cassandra only stares shocked at him, completely unimpressed, before looking expectantly at the princess. "….Rapunzel, can I talk to you for a second?"

Rapunzel glances over at Flynn, wincing, "Could you just… excuse me for one moment?" She tells him politely as Cassandra practically drags her back inside.

"What on earth is he doing here?!" Cass whispers aggressively on the other side of the door. "Are you crazy? If anyone sees him, they're gonna kill you and then me! And then kill you again."

"I know, I know. So, can you please just keep quiet and not freak out about this?" Rapunzel whispers back.

Cass sighs loudly, pressing her palm against her forehead. "Look, Raps. I don't care if you wanna keep hanging out with a thief for whatever reason. But this place is literally swarming with guards in case you forgot about that, so you don't think you could have chosen a better place to do this?!"

"Which is why I need you to just stand outside my door until he leaves and make sure nobody comes in, okay? Please, Cass?" Rapunzel begs, staring at the other girl with wide eyes the way that she knows Cassandra hates.

Cass glares back at her for a few moments with her arms crossed. "Ugh, fine!" She rolls her eyes, grumbling, "The things I do for you."

"Thank you!" Rapunzel scoops her up into a tight hug, smiling widely.

Instead of hugging her back, Cassandra lets her arms dangle limply between them. "But if anything happens, I'm holding you personally responsible." She flicks Rapunzel's hands off her, before pointing a finger at the princess, "As far as anyone is concerned, I had nothing to do with this."

"Okay, yeah. That's… entirely fair," Rapunzel tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, hoping that it won't come to that.

Rapunzel slowly walks back out onto the balcony a few minutes later, pressing her back against the door until it closes softly behind her.

"Well, she seems nice," Flynn muses sarcastically.

"Sorry about that," Rapunzel apologizes, embarrassed, "She, uh… she just needs some warming up to." The princess awkwardly saunters back toward him with her hands behind her back. Now that that's taken care of… "So… is there anything else you climbed all the way up here for?"

"Well yes, actually. Before I go, I do have one question for you," he raises a finger in the air, "I've been thinking a lot about what you said. And I just can't help but wonder… If you have everything you could ever want here… why did you run away?" he asks, his tone suddenly becoming more serious than Rapunzel has ever heard.

Rapunzel blinks in confusion, "You think this is everything I could ever want?"

"Well, I can't see how it isn't. You've got an enormous roof over your head, parents who love you, and not to mention all the money you could ask for." He gestures to the towering castle above them as he wanders in a circle. "I mean, if it were me, I'd take a castle over living in the woods any day."

Rapunzel looks away glumly, "I'd rather be free than live in this prison."

"Whoa, prison?" Flynn outbursts, "I mean… sure, maybe the paint needs a little work, but I wouldn't exactly call this a prison. And trust me, I've seen my fair share of those."

"It is when you aren't allowed to do anything for yourself," explains Rapunzel, suddenly frustrated. "You have people controlling you and telling you what to do and watching you all the time." She turns to rest her arms on the railing again, gazing longingly at the night sky. "I'd give anything to have what you have."

"Then why don't you just leave?"

She sighs hopelessly. "It's complicated."

Flynn appears next to her, following her in leaning over the railing. "Well… now that you mention it, I guess that does sound a little boring," he mumbles.

Rapunzel scoffs, "Maybe a lot boring. My dad doesn't even like when I leave the castle. He thinks I'm being reckless and setting a bad example for the kingdom."

"I mean, hey, you can't be as bad as me," Flynn points out jokingly, "You're catching up though."

Rapunzel giggles.

"No, seriously. I still don't know how you managed to outrun four guards and get away with it. I feel like I should be taking notes or something."

"Believe it or not, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself," Rapunzel notifies.

"Well, you've already proven that, Blondie," he smirks.

"It's just… my entire life, my parents have carved me into this perfect princess that they want me to be, but the truth is… I have no clue who I'm supposed to be." She looks over at him next to her. "Have you ever felt that way?"

"Well, let's see…" Flynn stands up straight again, inhaling deeply as he ponders that question. "When I was twelve, I ran away to join the travelling circus."

Rapunzel nearly bursts out laughing, "Seriously?"

"Seriously! It wasn't until later I found out it was run by a bunch of scam artists, but hey, it got me my name. And because of them, I like to think I'm the greatest scam artist who ever lived," Flynn puffs out his chest proudly.

Rapunzel laughs as he speaks, even though he is being completely serious.

"Not that that's anything to brag about but… after that, I never went back," Flynn shrugs. "You just have to meet the right people at the right time, I guess."

They gaze out at the horizon that separates the night sky from the calm ocean. Standing here now when the world is most quiet, Rapunzel can't help but feel like there is something else out there she is meant to find.

"Sometimes… I dream about sailing far away from here and just… exploring the entire world." Rapunzel admits with wonder. "I mean, there's so much out there that I haven't seen."

Flynn turns around, gripping the railing as he leans his back against it. "Tell you what. When you're done setting a bad example for the kingdom, I'll take you across the seven seas and we can be as reckless as we want. No guards, no over-protective dads, no handmaidens to tell you what to do…"

Rapunzel hums, though she doesn't believe him. She knows he's just saying it to make her feel better, but it's still fun to dream. "That sounds amazing."

"Yeah…" Suddenly, Flynn can't take his eyes off her. When she looks up at him, Flynn flashes her a warm smile and Rapunzel swears she has never felt her heart flutter like that. It terrifies her, yet somehow, she can't find herself to look away.

Just as Flynn leans closer to her, there's a knock at the door followed by Cassandra's muffled voice, and they jolt apart. "Uh… Raps? The guards are coming. You wanna hurry it up out there?"

Rapunzel feels her heart stop. She quickly faces Flynn, who appears just as panicked as her. "You have to go. Quick!" She whispers as she hurriedly ushers him off the balcony.

He immediately hops over the railing and begins climbing down, before popping his head up once more, "Meet me at the waterfall tomorrow night," he tells her, their faces inches apart.

"What?"

"There's something I wanna show you."

Rapunzel doesn't have time to ask him what he means before he leaps down onto the roof below and disappears into the shadows. The door to her bedroom bursts open a second later.

"Rapunzel?" Cassandra calls impatiently from the doorway, but Flynn is already gone. She sighs exasperatedly, shaking her head at the princess who is now standing there alone. "I swear, you're gonna give me a heart attack one day." With that, Cassandra grabs Rapunzel's wrist and pulls her inside.

A/N: Here's another Aladdin-inspired scene! (the last one, I swear).

That travelling circus story was taken from the published Flynn Rider novel by Jen Calonita (which everyone should read by the way).

Also, y'all have no idea how excited I am for what's to come in this story. Things are about to get intense!

Thank you so much to everyone that has read and commented so far! I read every one of them and they always bring a smile to my face when I'm at work.