Disclaimer: If I owned Tangled, we would have seen a flashback with child!Eugene. Sadly, I do not own either Tangled or Eugene. Just Edith and Meira.

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Chapter Nine

Eugene woke up to see Rapunzel smiling expectantly at him, which earned a groan from Eugene as he buried his face in his pillow. It was way too early for him to be delving into his past again. Turning over so that he was lying flat on his back, Eugene sighed in exasperation.

"Right…" he muttered under his breath as he ran a hand through his hair. "Where did I leave off?"

"You'd met the Stabbington brothers," Rapunzel supplied for him, snuggling closer and resting her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah…Stabbingtons…right," Eugene muttered. "So…Meira and I found a job to do, but it didn't really go the way we had planned for it to."

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Meira eyed the building in front of them, frowning a little. This was not exactly something that the two young thieves were used to doing. It was a bit more difficult than the diamond heist would be, because they couldn't really go in through the roof. They would have to go in through the door, and that was never something that Meira or Eugene would choose to do if they could help it. Still, there was no avoiding it this time.

"I swear…these people keep getting smarter," she muttered, glancing over at Eugene. "I hate it when they do that."

"Yeah, I know you do," Eugene said with a sigh. "Come on, let's just get this job done with, shall we?"

Arching an eyebrow at Eugene, Meira smirked a little at him as she knelt down in front of the door, closely inspecting the lock. It wasn't very complex, but it still took a little longer to unlock than she had expected it would. Perhaps she should practice her lock picking skills a little more. Rolling her eyes a little as she continued working at picking the lock, Meira finally managed a smile of triumph as the door swung open in front of her.

"Yeah, yeah, you're amazing, let's go," Eugene muttered under his breath, pushing Meira forward urgently. "We don't want to hang around outside for too long."

Rolling her eyes at her friend as she entered the building, Meira muttered a few choice words as she followed Eugene. The building in question was something very similar to a bank in a larger city, but as this was such a small town, this wouldn't have as much money as they could wish for. Still, it would be better than nothing and feed them for at least a little longer. Pulling off the gloves that he was wearing, Eugene made his way over to the small door in the wall that would lead to the money. Frowning a little in concentration, he examined the door carefully before turning to Meira.

"Okay…got the—" he started to say.

His voice trailed off when he saw the two figures standing behind Meira, one of which had his hand tightly gripping her shoulder. It was the same pair of redheaded brothers from earlier. Eugene hadn't been afraid of them when he first saw them, but now…it was an entirely different matter. Swallowing harshly, he tried to keep himself steady, but it wasn't exactly a very easy task.

"Well, nice to meet you two gentlemen again," he said with what he hoped was a charming smile. It probably wasn't, though, judging from the look that Meira was giving him. "Do I even want to know why you two are bothering us while we work?"

"We already told you," the brother with the scar said with a sneer. "This is our town, not yours."

"Funny, didn't see your name on it anywhere," Eugene said with a chuckle.

Meira gave him a dark look and shook her head ever so slightly. Eugene didn't bother to pay attention to that. He enjoyed having her somewhat alive, after all. Still standing straight, he met the gaze of the two brothers' evenly, though he certainly didn't feel that brave. The two brothers seemed to notice this, as the one with the eye patch smiled in a very unpleasant manner, gripping Meira's shoulder tighter.

"Then I guess you weren't looking hard enough," the scarred brother snarled. "We're giving you one last chance. Get out of this town before we force you to."

"Sorry, fellas," Eugene said, crossing his arms with a smirk. "I don't respond well to threats. So I recommend that you get out of here if you know what's good for you."

This just earned a dark laugh from the two brothers, and Eugene began regretting his smartass comments. Still, he'd already gotten himself into this mess, he might as well try and get them both out of it.

"Big talk for such a little kid," the clearly older brother sneered. "Wonder if you'd still be talking so big when we start hurting your pretty little friend here," he added, pulling out a knife and pressing the blade against Meira's neck.

Meira froze with a sharp inhalation and stiffened slightly at the feeling of cold steel against her neck. Her eyes met Eugene's in fear and for a brief moment Eugene felt as though his heart had stopped. She was going to die if he wasn't careful.

"You won't hurt her," he said with confidence he didn't feel.

"Sure we won't," the redhead said with a sneer, pressing the edge of the blade against Meira's neck so hard so that he drew blood. "Now…are you going to back out of this or not?"

Eugene and Meira's eyes met for a moment and the girl nodded firmly, her eyes closing in acceptance. She wanted Eugene to just let her die. Why would she want something like that? Frowning at this, Eugene started to protest, but she shook her head firmly at him, her eyes opening and staring right at him.

"Don't think so, guys," Eugene finally said with a frown. "See…I kinda need you to both walk away so we can get on with our work."

"Sorry. Not gonna happen."

Before Eugene could stop it, Meira's body had slumped to the floor, her throat slit and blood pooling around her body. With an inarticulate cry of rage, Eugene leaped at the two brothers, willing to fight them off with his bare hands if he had to. Sadly, that was not possible as he found himself calmly thrown back against the wall. Stars danced in front of his eyes and Eugene groaned in pain as he tried to keep himself conscious. Sadly, it failed miserably and he felt his grip on the waking world slipping.

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"I'm so sorry, Eugene," Rapunzel said quietly, snuggling closer to him and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"What about?" Eugene asked, genuinely surprised as he hugged her back, his mind still eight years in the past.

"That you had to watch Meira die," Rapunzel explained, her expression serious. After all, she did know what it was like to watch someone she cared for die. "How did you start working with the brothers?"

Eugene sighed and sat up hastily. "That is a story for another time, Blondie," he said firmly. "We have breakfast and then lessons to get to."

Rapunzel looked a little disappointed by this as she also sat up, but she didn't argue. Eugene did have a point. Besides, this was probably a very painful subject for him.

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Author's Note: Wow…long time since I updated this. But I can't say that I'm surprised by this. I knew I wanted the Stabbingtons to kill Meira, I just couldn't bring myself to write it out. Like I mentioned in my last AN, those brothers are ridiculously hard for me to write. I just don't like getting into their headspace. It's not a pleasant space to be in. *shudder* Really not pleasant.

But! I'm getting close to the end of this story. I figure I'll have Eugene explain how it was that he got to be working with the Stabbingtons, then I'll finish up the story. And then I can start posting my newest AU story. I already have two and a half chapters written for it, so we'll see how that goes. And don't worry! I'm working on the next chapter for Let Your Power Shine. Again, remember to review!