Friendship Blankets

It had all started a month ago when Rapunzel threw a giant sleepover in the castle, inviting Lance, Kiera, Catalina, Varian, Ruddiger, and of course Eugene and Pascal. They'd eaten cupcakes, painted a mural, and braided hair (the girls had loved doing Rapunzel's hair. And despite his protests, they'd also made a tiny braid out of Varian's blue streak, which of course Rapunzel had painted in her journal.)

Eugene had shown off his yo-yo tricks (Rapunzel still wished it was called a hey-hey) and Lance had everyone laughing with his impressions of Crowley, Feldspar, and Shorty. Rapunzel had noticed Varian tense up a little bit during the Feldspar impression, evidently some citizens hadn't forgiven Varian as quickly as others. But she loved having Varian back in the group, and hoped she was making him comfortable.

When it was time for bed, everyone got out their blankets. Rapunzel had knit personalized blankets for her friends over the past year: flowers for Catalina and Kiera, shiny gemstones for Lance, mirrors for Eugene, even a small blanket with a painter's palette for Pascal. Varian looked comparatively out of place with his patched and frayed red blanket. It even had a few burn holes in it, probably from experiments gone wrong.

"Nice blankets. Mine's kinda old." Varian admitted. "But at least it's big enough for me and Ruddiger, right boy?"

Ruddiger chittered happily, and moved closer so Varian could pet him before bedtime.

'That's it. I have to make blankets for Varian and Ruddiger.' Rapunzel thought to herself as she wished everyone a good night.

So that's what Rapunzel had been working on these past 4 weeks (in between having adventures and nervously waiting for news on Cassandra's whereabouts. In the castle, near her handmaiden outfit, Cassandra's blanket with a horse pattern lay, unused but not forgotten.) The smaller blanket had been finished first: green with red apples for Ruddiger. Varian's blanket, blue with beakers of colorful chemicals, had just been finished that morning. She folded both blankets carefully, put them in a gift box, and carried it to Varian's lab, where she was sure he would be.

As she had predicted, Varian was hard at work in his lab, as a small puff of smoke from a minor explosion testified.

"Oh, Vari~an, I have something for you!" Rapunzel called out happily.

Varian answered the door, looking very tired and slightly flushed. "What is it?" he asked.

"Open and see!" she teased.

"Okay. Thanks." Varian took the present. He undid the ribbon and stared in astonishment at its contents. "Blankets? For me and Ruddiger?" he said in disbelief.

"Of course. I make them for all my friends!" Rapunzel answered cheerfully.

"Yeah but we- and last year I- I don't really deserve..." Varian stammered.

"Varian." Rapunzel looked him straight in the eye. "We. Are. Friends. And I don't ever want to hear you say you don't deserve my friendship."

Varian sniffled. "T-thanks. This means so much, you don't know-" he gulped, and Rapunzel could see he was close to tears. She could also see that he looked exhausted.

"Varian. Have you been sleeping regularly?" she asked.

"I get by." Varian answered warily.

"Not good enough. Varian, you really need to sleep." Rapunzel insisted.

"Sometimes when I sneeze, my eyes close. And that's enough for me." Varian maintained.

"Absolutely not. You need to take this blanket and go to bed right now! You're gonna make yourself sick and then all your friends would worry about you." she scolded.

Varian knew she was sincere. She really would worry, and it warmed his heart to know that in spite of how badly he'd treated her in the past, she still cared about him.

"Okay. I'll go to bed." Varian relented.

"Good. And Ruddiger, you make sure he stays there." Rapunzel instructed.

Ruddiger chirruped in reply, as if to say he considered it his solemn duty.

The End

This was totally inspired by one of the thesunflowerchild-varian ideas of Rapunzel making blankets for friends. And also by an incorrect quote from 1that-is-not-correct1 on tumblr. Rapunzel's like a big sister, she's so sweet.