AN: This is a fun, non-canon drabble set in the same universe as my full-length story, Killing Me Slowly. I know you guys want the next chapter, but I've been struggling lately (it's ready for editing, but life is crazy busy and a little bit kicking my butt right now), so I needed a small, low-stress way to get my inspiration and motivation back. This one-shot felt like the perfect way to do that.
Today's featured songs are Friends by Chase Atlantic and Thin White Lies by 5 Seconds of Summer. Which, yes, is already a featured song in Killing Me Slowly, but it fits and I liked it for the title. Enjoy!
Oh, and as Kelsey would say: Prince Charles. Fuck that guy.
Thin White Lies
Killing me slow with the words you wrote
The heart broke, the heart you broke
Calling my name, I don't wanna say
But I'm wide awake, I'm wide awake
Just one more taste of you, my love…
The hallway is not a good place to make out with your girlfriend.
The hallway is not a good place to make out with your girlfriend, the Crown Princess of Corona, when you're a former thief; a complete commoner. The hallway is not a good place to make out with your girlfriend when half the guard - the annoying half - is still sort of out to get you, despite them being your coworkers now.
The hallway is not a good place to make out when your girlfriend is married to a foreign, narcissistic prince with a shrill, lightly-accented voice and a control problem.
But self-control, Eugene and Rapunzel have learned as of late, is an increasingly difficult virtue to master, even for them.
So now, here she is, tongue halfway down his throat and little, whimpery moans falling from her mouth and into his, sucked up and swallowed by his needy tongue. And sure, someone could easily pass them by — a big-mouthed maid, Charles, or her father even — but they've hidden themselves within the shadows of a rarely-traveled hallway just well enough to semi-comfortably press their luck.
She'd been making her way to the library for an early-afternoon lesson, he'd been making his way back to his bedroom from guard duty, exhausted after a long and boring night shift. Tired as Eugene is, though, coming face-to-face with one another — coincidentally rounding opposite corners of the same hallway — was far too advantageous to simply ignore.
He's missed her, hasn't seen Rapunzel for a few days now, and she'd rushed excitedly to him from her end of the hallway, green skirts swishing in anticipation behind her. The afternoon sun filtered through the tall windows lining the entirety of the long corridor, shooting warm beams of golden sunlight upon her gorgeous, grinning face, and Eugene couldn't've stayed away if he tried.
They'd tried to stay away from one another. Really, they had. And for three months, they'd succeeded… mostly succeeded, aside from a few slip-ups here and there. Then, he'd gotten absolutely shitfaced with Lance and she'd shown up unannounced at his bedroom door, begging him to let her stay the night and to not give up on her so easily.
Begging him not to give up on them.
Begging him not to become the stranger that forever haunts her, not after everything they've been through together. Begging him to forget the excruciatingly painful fact that she was getting married to another man the very next day, begging Eugene to admit that he still wanted her in the same way that she wanted him.
And he did! Of course he still wanted her, still wants her! Despite Rapunzel's torturous, three-month engagement, Eugene had somehow fallen even more in love with her. Somehow, knowing that she was wanted by someone else had made him want her even more, which Eugene had never thought to be possible.
It was completely cruel, the entire thing. To lose her to another man was a kick in the teeth from the universe if Eugene had ever felt one, and the universe had fucked him over a lot, long before ever meeting Rapunzel. When she'd first been forced into a surprise engagement by the Council, the two of them had very reluctantly agreed that at least trying to be just friends would be for the best: best for her safety, best for the future of her kingdom. He'd promised that he would stick around, keep an eye on her… at least until he knew that she was safe enough with this new prince to somehow move on.
Impossible as that had felt.
That night, drunk as hell and feeling even more pathetic, he'd sent her away. He'd cried himself to sleep that night, his tears tasting like whiskey and every form of regret, knowing that she would be getting married to someone else the next afternoon. Which was just about Eugene's greatest nightmare, his new dream abruptly ripped from his arms no quicker than she'd flipped his entire life upside-down just over a year ago now.
He'd sent her away. And the next day — longingly watching her from afar, dressed in white and looking like everything he ever could've wanted — Eugene had regretted not falling into Rapunzel in the way that she'd so plainly begged him to the night before. Because then, he'd genuinely thought that he'd lost her for good. That she'd offered to give him every single piece of herself, and like an idiot, he'd allowed that chance to slip through his fingers like water.
And maybe it would've been for the best, being just friends, if they'd been able to bear a lifetime apart.
But they hadn't been able to last three months, let alone comprehend the thought of an entire lifetime without one another.
They weren't just friends. They couldn't be just friends. It was too hard. They'd given it their honest-to-goodness best shot for a few months — three horrible months — and it had been the purest form of inner torment that either of them had ever experienced. In those three months, Rapunzel had found herself at his bedroom door in the middle of the night far more often than she should've, and they'd always wound up right back at square one: falling into one another's arms, blubbering like babies over their incomprehensible situation.
And, that fateful night after her wedding day, they'd done much more than simply cry in one another's arms. Sure, they'd done a bit of that, too. But that fateful, heart-wrenching night, they'd taken every piece of one another that they could possibly offer. Now, there was nothing left to give, nothing left to take. Now, they had every feasible part of one another's body and soul, heart's bound and tangled up together for the rest of time.
After that one, passionate night, there was no looking back. There was no letting go.
For the sake of her people and for the sake of her kingdom, being just friends with Eugene would be the right thing to do. Letting go of Eugene would be the right thing to do. But for the sake of her heart? It simply wasn't bearable. It simply isn't an option. Rapunzel had quickly come to realize that she would soon rather die than ever lose Eugene again.
Now that they've finally taken that final, perfect step in their relationship — now that they've spent the last several weeks making love — after wanting that with one another for so long… Rapunzel just couldn't bear to part from Eugene, couldn't bear to give him up! She couldn't bear to lose him before, but she especially couldn't bear it now.
Even if it meant keeping secrets just to keep him.
"So," Eugene breathes heavily, fisting at Rapunzel's choppy hair with one hand, leaning against the wall above her head with the other as he leaves open-mouthed kisses along her partially-exposed shoulders. "Should I be expecting a pretty visitor tonight?"
"Yes." Rapunzel whimpers quietly, gently leaning her head back against the stone wall to expose more of her neck to Eugene's warm, expert tongue. "I've missed you. I've been so busy these last few days, and I'm sorry —"
"I've missed you, too, Sunshine. Trust me." Eugene whispers hotly in her ear, and Rapunzel can feel his lips lift into a soft smile against her blushing cheek. "You really don't have to apologize to me for being busy, though. I get it. You've had a lot going on lately."
As long as it's not him you're too busy with, I really don't mind. As long as I still get to see you, touch you, taste you… even if I can only have those things in short, hidden moments like this for the rest of our lives.
"I know, but still." Rapunzel whines, guiltily jutting out her bottom lip, while Eugene tilts his head down in the hopes of taking the pink flesh between his own lips. Rapunzel drops her voice to a low whisper, matching Eugene's tender tone as she looks up at him with wide, full eyes. "I can't stop thinking about you today."
"Mmm… is that so, Princess?" Eugene murmurs cheekily, flirtatiously raising an eyebrow and fingering at the green, off-the-shoulder sleeve falling from her arm, leaning down to kiss her bare shoulder and feeling highly appreciative of this particular wardrobe choice. "Naughty thoughts, I hope?"
Rapunzel gasps airily at that, though her surprise quickly shifts into an uncontainable giggle. These days, it's a few-and-far-between sound that makes Eugene's heart swell so big that his chest actually starts to ache under her crinkle-eyed gaze.
"Eugene Fitzherbert! I am thinking no such thing —"
"I do believe, Sunshine," Eugene quips with an unhidden smirk, leaning in to place a quick, ginger kiss to her reddened cheek. "That you're blushing."
"I'm not…" Rapunzel flusters, suddenly feeling a bit bashful, which doesn't happen with Eugene very often. Though, her first time making love to him was only a few weeks ago… but they'd fooled around so much before that! She shouldn't be nervous with him, certainly not now! "I mean, I don't —"
"It's okay." Eugene continues on with a casual shrug, grinning proudly, such an egotistical expression causing him to look a bit more like Flynn Rider in the warm afternoon light filtering in from the large, tall windows lining the hallway behind them. "If you're horny, you can just say that. I am, too."
"See?" When she doesn't say anything right away, Eugene gently takes Rapunzel's hand in his and guides her fingers to rest over his heart, which is beating so fast from their heated kissing that Rapunzel fears it might burst right out of his chest and into her awaiting palm. "It's not so hard to admit out loud."
Rapunzel deflates against the wall, defeated but smiling softly up at him, unconsciously reaching out to toy with the collar on Eugene's red guard uniform but still feeling a bit too shy — uncharacteristically — to look him in the eye just yet.
"Okay, so maybe I am —"
"Rapunzel? Rapunzel!"
They both go positively wide-eyed at that, jumping back from one another at the sound of someone calling out her name just around the corner — seemingly from the end of the connected hallway — clicking footsteps quickly approaching on the marbled floor.
"Rapunzel, where are you!"
"Fuck." Eugene bites under his breath, knitting his eyebrows together and frantically looking around for a better hiding place than the weak hallway shadows. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."
That sorry motherfucker! Always showing up at the absolute worst times...
Rapunzel frantically looks to him, panicked and fully trusting Eugene to have some sort of a solution. Not knowing what else to do, Eugene abruptly grabs her hand and whispers, "In here!" under his breath, swiftly pushing Rapunzel into a nearby broom closet just down the hall.
Suddenly plunged into the crippling darkness of the closet, Eugene pushes Rapunzel against the wall adjacent to the door after quietly shutting it behind them. Holding her hands loosely around the back of Eugene's neck, Rapunzel holds her breath as she strains to hear Charles's slow, tentative footsteps treading down the hallway, as though he'd heard something and he's trying to figure out exactly what it was.
"Just… don't… move." Eugene mutters almost inaudibly as Rapunzel absently plays with the hair at the nape of his neck, fumbling around in the dark to brush his fingers along the side of Rapunzel's neck and through her hair, knowing exactly what gestures will soothe her nerves in the tensest of moments.
"He's not leaving…" Rapunzel whispers against the side of Eugene's neck, silently inhaling his calming, familiar scent and registering the sound of Charles's back-and-forth pacing in the sullen hallway which they'd been making out in only mere moments ago.
"I guess we still have a little time to fool around then, don't we?" Eugene hums, resuming his good work on her soft skin, leaning down to leave warm kisses against Rapunzel's tensed-up shoulders. "Consider it a good thing."
"Eugene!" Rapunzel warns, fully intending to scold him for his lack of discretion with her husband of just a few weeks lingering right outside the closet door. The warning, though, immediately falls dead on her tongue as Eugene's nimble fingertips gently brush over the tulle-like material stretched across her breasts, decorating her corset. "Oh... "
"Now… where were we?" Eugene grabs at Rapunzel's hips and smiles as she hisses a breath through her teeth at the contact of his hands lingering upon her breasts. Pulling Rapunzel flush against him and finding her lips in the dark, Eugene gently brushes his mouth against hers, but doesn't fully press their awaiting lips together.
Before that bastard interrupted our fun…
"But… but what about Charles!" Rapunzel whines under her breath, close enough to Eugene that Charles wouldn't be able to hear their whispered conversation; so close that they're nearly exchanging oxygen with one another, hot and desperate and more turned on by their current situation than they probably should be. "He's still right out there —"
Rapunzel motions her hand toward the general direction of the door in the pitch blackness of the closet, quickly realizing that Eugene likely can't make out her dramatic gestures in this horrible lighting.
"Fuck that guy." Eugene whispers honestly and hotly into Rapunzel's hair, dark and gravelly and so low that it makes her shiver against him. "Just don't let him hear you."
Despite her gut-wrenching nerves, there's something incredibly hot about the thought of messing around with Eugene in a darkened closet, their senses completely heightened, having to keep quiet because her husband could very easily hear them.
"Okay…" Rapunzel murmurs shakily, arching her back against the wall to fully press up into him, unable to deny how needy her body is for his fingers, for his mouth, for his everything.
"Just let me play with you." Eugene whispers, a phrase filled with so much love and trust and dirtiness that Rapunzel could cry, knowing she'll never be able to feel that same level of trust and longing for her horribly controlling, complete asshole of a husband.
Under the heavy skirts of her tulle-covered dress, Rapunzel rubs her thighs together, feeling her heartbeat quicken and her legs start to shake as Eugene reaches down to lift her skirts, holding them up in his fisted hand. With his free hand, he brushes the skin on the inside of one of her newly-bared thighs, able to hear Rapunzel's breath as it catches in her throat only because their bodies are pressed so close together.
Eugene's fingers travel upward unbearably slow, gliding against her impossibly-soft skin and ultimately settling between her legs, almost where she wants him to be. Rapunzel shimmies her hips slightly, spreading her legs for him, as if to wordlessly beg Eugene to just touch her right there already!
When he suddenly pulls his hand from between her thighs, Rapunzel accidentally lets out a low whimper of disapproval, causing Eugene to reflexively bring his free hand up to her mouth.
"But you have to be quiet." When Rapunzel doesn't make a sound in response to his gentle demand, her whimpering thoroughly muffled beneath his fingers, Eugene smiles to himself and wishes regretfully that he could somehow see her face in the dark as she moans for him. "That's my girl."
If she could, Eugene calling her 'his girl' would be enough to have Rapunzel melting into a shaking, moaning mess. But heavy pacing continues just outside the door, reminding her to remain silent, and Rapunzel strains to listen to Charles as he mumbles angrily under his breath.
"Never around… always disappearing, so late… we had lunch plans!"
Oh. They did have lunch plans today. Between trying to get to her lesson early enough to get a bit of personal reading and journaling in before her tutor arrived and her mind being so fixated on Eugene all morning, Rapunzel had completely forgotten that she'd half-heartedly agreed to having lunch with her husband this morning at the breakfast table.
"Lunch plans?" Eugene whispers, and Rapunzel can tell by the tone of his voice that he's smirking as he takes his hand away from her mouth. "You made lunch plans with that guy?"
"Shut up." Rapunzel rolls her eyes, far too in the mood for Eugene's mouth against hers to deal with the snide, sarcastic comments that so often come out of it. "You know I didn't want to."
There's a long, heavy moment of silence between them then, and Rapunzel likewise wishes that she could see Eugene's face, and wishes that she could somehow gauge what he's really thinking there in the dark.
"What do you want?" Eugene finally asks, so tender and so blunt, all at the same time.
As if you don't already know… as if there's anything else — anyone else — I could ever want!
"You." Rapunzel whisper-groans without hesitation, so quietly that Eugene almost doesn't hear her the first time. "You know I want you. Right now… always. Forever."
Rapunzel fingers around in the blackness for Eugene's collar, softly tugging him down to tantalizingly brush their lips together, giving him a taste of his own well-deserved medicine.
"God, I want you so much that it actually hurts."
It hurts to have to do this, it hurts to have to keep this stupid secret, and it hurts to know that I'll never get to marry you! That I'll never get to carry your children, that I'll never get to make love to you with a ring from you on my finger —!
"Whatever you want, Princess." Eugene breathes lazily, desperately holding back a moan as her tongue darts out to warmly run along his bottom lip. "Whatever you want, I'll do it…" I'll lie for you, I'll stick around for you when I know that I shouldn't, I'll risk losing my freaking neck for you…
Finally falling into a hot, heavy kiss, Eugene resumes his gentle tracing along the inside of Rapunzel's bare thigh, still holding her skirts up in a fisted hand. Fingering at her lacy underwear for a moment as they muffle their moans with one another's mouths, ultimately pushing them to the side, Eugene feels Rapunzel's hair brush against his cheek as she breaks the kiss far too soon.
Allowing her head to fall forward in her overstimulation, Rapunzel finds herself biting into the thick, red material at his shoulder to keep herself quiet.
"Fuck…" Finding them again, Rapunzel moans inwardly against his lips as Eugene gently rubs her through her underwear, so quietly that the dirty word almost doesn't exist. When he finally pushes the wet fabric to the side, Rapunzel nuzzles her face against his uniform to envelope her sounds, almost not sure what to do with herself and trying so desperately to keep her shaky voice in check. "Eugene, I can't…"
I can't be quiet, not even for you, not even if you ask me to! How can I, when you make me feel so good... and you've barely even touched me yet! But in the utter darkness like this, I can feel everything, every little brush of your hand against my skin…
"Shhh…" Eugene soothes, leaning in close to nuzzle his nose upon Rapunzel's neck, resting along her rapid pulse point and rubbing his fingers against her in a gentle, calming motion. "You can. I've got you. Just feel, Sunshine. Just let me make you feel good."
You're safe, you're loved, you're mine. That guy out there, your husband? He could never love you like this. He could never love you half as much —
"Rapunzel!"
Charles yells out nearby, impatience laced through every fiber of his voice and causing Rapunzel to jump against Eugene at the loud call of her name on the other side of the door. Her husband is so hauntingly close now, his clicking footsteps mere feet away from the closet door, reminding them just how inescapable Charles and the unwanted marriage truly is.
"Eugene!" Rapunzel whimpers again, wound so tight that her hands actually ball up into little fists, her bare feet silently jumping up and down in the horrid anxiety of the closet door being flung open at any possible moment and their dirty little secrets finally being exposed to the light. "I want -"
I want you, I want out of this closet, I want out of this marriage, I want out of all these lies that I've been telling, I want you inside of me -!
"I know. Don't worry." Eugene reassures faintly, softly stroking her as Rapunzel's thighs shake at the remembrance of the last time they'd fucked. Which was only a few nights ago in reality, but feels like years ago now. "Just try to relax, Blondie."
But how could I not worry, when he's right there, when my father and my husband and the entire Council would likely kill me - kill us - for this!?
Well, maybe not literally kill me, but you!
But she trusts him, with all of her heart and with all of her body. And because she trusts Eugene and his judgement so blindly — so fully — Rapunzel relaxes against him, just as he'd asked her to, spreading her tensed legs as his hand gently nudges them further apart again.
Pushing her underwear completely down in the name of foggy-headed desire and easier access, letting them fall around her ankles, Eugene slips a finger easily inside of her and bites his lip to suppress a moan at the warm wetness he finds there. Now, it's his turn to hang his head against Rapunzel's bare shoulder, plunging his finger as deep as possible and gently nudging at her dripping insides in a weird little hug of sorts.
He's fingered plenty of girls before. He's fingered her plenty of times before, long before Charles had ever come into the picture and long before they'd had to hide in broom closets to do it (well, that's not entirely true, but not nearly as often). His breath shouldn't catch in his throat, his heart shouldn't flutter quite so fast, he shouldn't be doomed to become a pathetic, panting mess in her hands, and butterflies shouldn't erupt in the pit of his stomach. This is old hat, for crying out loud.
Or, it would've been, before her.
But this is Rapunzel. Everything she does, everything she is - every warm, sunshiny part of her- makes him want to melt right into a Eugene-Fitzherberty puddle. He's maintained some of the smooth, confident ego which Flynn Rider had once grown within him, but Eugene doesn't feel the need to hold back anymore. He doesn't feel the need to hold back his emotions, to hold back his truest self. Not with her. If butterflies want to erupt in his stomach every time he does something as simple as kiss or even just touch her, then so be it.
Shallow breaths puff gently against his ear as Eugene pumps his finger slowly - in and out and over again - and he can tell that Rapunzel is trying desperately to hold back the passionate moans which so often accompany their most intimate moments.
"So good…" Rapunzel manages brokenly, momentarily catching his bottom lip between her teeth in the hopes of somehow keeping her voice down. "You always make me feel… so good."
But I wish it was a different part of you inside of me, instead of just your fingers…
"Try not to make the noises that you only make for me." Eugene breathes heavily, slipping a second finger inside and quickening his pace just enough for Rapunzel's thighs to clench around his hand in a warm, wordless thank you. "Save them for later, for when I'm fucking you so good that you're moaning my name in the middle of the night."
"Eugene —!"
"You would never moan his name, right?" Eugene quietly goes on, ignoring her whispered whimpers because he needs to know. He needs to hear it from her lips, needs to hear it after the horrible past few months they've had; after the man right outside that door ruined everything. "You would only do that for me, wouldn't you, Princess?"
"Yes…" Rapunzel whispers shakily, struggling to keep her voice down as he finger-fucks her all the way to heaven. "Only you. Only ever you!"
Heart-wrenching as this perfect, longed-for statement would be under very different circumstances, Rapunzel gasps for an entirely opposing reason as the door is abruptly wrenched open, light flooding into the small closet only because her lustful declarations of love had been too fucking loud.
Uh oh.
"Oh… Charles." Rapunzel nervously tugs her skirts from Eugene's fisted hand, which he quickly drops, shoving the skirts down and feeling thankful that she'd kicked her underwear away to the darkened corner of the closet, not to be seen pooled suggestively around her ankles. "Hi."
"Hi? Hi?" Charles sputters, murder in his eyes and looking a bit insane as the afternoon sun backlights his menacing shadow. "That's all you have to say? You're tangled up with another man in a closet and all you have to say to me is hi!?"
"I -"
What else am I supposed to say? That I was just about to get fucked in a broom closet by the love of my life when I'm married to you? That I've been getting fucked by the love of my life when I'm married to you?
"What's the meaning of this, Rapunzel?" Charles demands when Rapunzel doesn't go on, too flustered to know what else to do but stare at him blankly, her secrets catching up to her too fast to properly register. "And it'd better be good."
"I just -"
I wanted him, because I can't bring myself to ever want you…
"You're just what?" Charles bites out, glaring at his new wife with so much burning rage and animosity in his eyes that it actually makes Rapunzel's stomach hurt. "Acting like a common whore?"
"Hey, you'd better watch it." Eugene warns, stepping in front of Rapunzel to jab a finger in the air toward Charles and having half a mind to lick his fingers clean right in front of him, having just quickly retreated them from between her thighs, but deciding that such a thing probably wouldn't be the best decision at the present moment.
"Oh, great! You have something to say! Of course you're going to speak for her." Charles throws his head back in a terrifyingly furious laugh, the anger rolling from his tongue and off his shoulders as he rests his glaring gaze upon Eugene now. "Of course you would!"
"Oh, fuck off." Eugene whines as he rolls his head to the side, eyes rolling with it and detestment oozing from his every word when he finally looks back to Charles. "You knew we were together. From the very moment that you waltzed in here without warning and fucked up everything, you knew what was going on here. You knew what you were taking."
Eugene motions hastily between himself and Rapunzel, scoffing under his breath as over three months of mutual hatred rears its ugly head.
"Don't act like you didn't know."
Ignoring Eugene's angry (and entirely valid) statements, Charles scoffs as well, turning back to a cringing Rapunzel.
Rapunzel, who's more feisty than Eugene, but a bit more emotional under pressure.
"So, this is why you're late for lunch? This is why you're always disappearing? You've been slumming around with the likes of him? A criminal?!" Charles nearly screams, laying his palms flat in the air between them. "When you said there was nothing going on between you anymore? You vowed your loyalty to me, before your parents and before your kingdom, and you said there was nothing going on!"
Because I said what I had to say… not because it was the truth.
Rapunzel cringes visibly at Charles's betrayed outburst, shrinking back and into herself. She wants nothing more now than to retreat into Eugene's arms, to disappear with him and never come back.
She'd broken a promise. Empty as that promise had been from the start — as much as she hadn't wanted to make it — she's broken her first big promise, her first real vow. A promise that, really, Rapunzel wishes she never would've had to make in the first place, though she hadn't been given much of a choice in the matter.
A vow which she'd always dreamed of making to Eugene one day, not to Charles.
But it hadn't been up to her. She hadn't even been given the choice, hadn't been able to decide for herself if marrying Charles was even something she could want. Everyone else had decided that for her. And as a result, she's broken more promises than she can count lately. Much as she hates him, the disappointed look on Charles's face reminds Rapunzel of why she's always been so adamant on never breaking her promises.
"But now… I can see that it was all just a lie."
Charles deflates, and if he wasn't such a raging prick most of the time, Rapunzel would've felt sorry for him. She really would've.
Under different circumstances, she would've felt bad, could've, but… has Charles ever really given her a good reason to?
No. He hasn't. He isn't Eugene, so he hasn't.
"Would you believe me if I said that I just… really needed a broom?"
AN: Well, that was hot, until… Okay, please don't be mad at me! If you've been here for a while, you know that I absolutely live for the angst!
First, Something About Love Being Hard Work, and now this? Well, that's an alternate version of Charles finding out about the affair if I ever wrote one, but gosh… why won't I just let them fuck already? XD
Poor New Dream! I have a thing for torturing them, and myself, apparently.