Chapter 4: Making a Deal

A/N: Sorry there was a delay in posting, I've been really distracted the last few days... I'm being really creative, but not quite in ways I want to be... I keep coming up with new ideas for fanfics, which isn't exactly what I need right now because I really want to start my original OHC piece and finish up a YYH series I'm working on and finish my other big project, but I can't do that when I'm getting a ton of new ideas and getting distracted by them... But anyways... Here is chapter 4. I'll try to be more prompt with the updates since I'm pretty sure this fic is basically done unless I randomly get the urge to go back and edit it again.

Also, thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, or followed this fanfic! Your support means a lot to me!

Disclaimer: I don't own OHC, Tangled, or anything else I might have used that is clearly not mine!

Haruhi stares outside for a moment longer to make sure that Benibara is really and truly gone. Then she takes a deep breath and slowly approaches the closet, clutching her frying pan. Then she removes the chair, but the doors remain closed.

She takes another deep breath. "Okay…" she whispers, taking several steps back.

Then she flings her hair at the handle and yanks open the closet door. For a long moment there is only silence, and then Tamaki falls forward to land on the floor with a splat that would surely have broken his nose if this weren't an animated movie. Haruhi winces at the sound and waits to see if he'll move or get up, but he doesn't. She tiptoes up to him, but he still doesn't move. She gazes down at him thoughtfully…

Then Haruhi is using her hair to tie Tamaki to a chair and pulling him into a shaft of sunlight. Tamaki's head still lolls forward as he has not managed to regain consciousness yet… We would be worried about damage to his brain, but we all know that dear Tama-chan is an idiot, so his brain cells will be fine.

Pascal sits on Tamaki's shoulder and smacks him once with his claw, quickly turning dark blue to hide on his shirt, but the blow doesn't even make Tamaki stir. Gaining confidence, Pascal slaps him several times with his tail and pokes his neck repeatedly. Tamaki still doesn't stir, so Pascal tries the rather drastic step of sticking his tongue in Tamaki's ear. Tamaki wakes up with a yelp of disgust and tries to rub his ear on his shoulder, sending Pascal flying to the ground.

"Huh?" Tamaki yelps. Then he looks down and sees that he is, in fact, tied to a chair with hair. "Is this…?" He looks around and realizes that the hair is just all over the room… just everywhere. And it's up on the ceiling too, draped over the rafters. "…hair?"

Haruhi is crouched up in the rafters with her frying pan, keeping herself out of sight. She watches as Tamaki struggles to free himself. When she tries to speak, her voice is shaky and nervous. "Struggling… struggling is pointless."

"Huh?" Tamaki asks, finally sitting still and looking around the tower. Haruhi jumps down from the rafters, landing in the shadow where Tamaki still can't see her.

"I know why you're here," Haruhi says, her voice quite a bit braver now, "and I'm not afraid of you."

"What?" Tamaki asks, totally bewildered now.

Haruhi steps into the light now, finally allowing Tamaki to see her for the first time. He gapes openly at her slender figure, long golden hair, and angry brown eyes. "Who are you?" she demands, "and how did you find me?" She lifts the frying pan up to add weight to her words.

Tamaki continues to gape at the girl, completely distracted by her fragile beauty. "Uhhh…"

Haruhi's eyes narrowed and she lifted the frying pan even more, really looking ready to dent Tamaki's skull. "Who are you? And how did you find me?" she repeats angrily.

Tamaki finally finds whatever he has that passes for sense. He lowers his head and stares up at her, violet eyes contrasting beautifully with white-blonde hair. In his softest and most seductive voice, he murmurs, "I know not who you are, my princess, nor how I came to find you. But may I just say… that I am beyond entranced by your perfect beauty. This lonesome tower should not cage such a lovely bird, and clearly it was fate that drew me here to your side."

Haruhi stares at him in confusion. "Wh…What?"

"Princess, you should not hide that face away from the world. You must spread your wings and fly, fly far away from here, with me to protect you and hold you up," Tamaki continues. "For I am Prince Tamaki Suoh and I would never abandon a lady in her time of need!" Somehow sparkles and light and rose petals surround him as he speaks joyfully.

Haruhi stared at him for several moments before shaking herself out of her daze. "Who else knows my location…Tamaki Suoh?" she demands, pointing the frying pan at him.

"Alright, Princess…"

"Haruhi."

"Princess Haruhi… If you must know…I ran into a spot of trouble out there in the forest… I came across your tower, and I…" A look of realization and horror crosses his face. "Oh… oh no… WHERE IS MY SATCHEL?!"

"I've hidden it," Haruhi says triumphantly, crossing her arms. "Someplace where you'll never find it."

Tamaki glances around. "It's in that pot, isn't it?"

Outside of the tower… we hear a certain familiar sound…

WHA-BONKKKK!

Tamaki blinks awake. "Ah… uh… huh?" He sees that Pascal has his tongue in his ear. "AUGH!" Would you stop doing that?" he yelps, rubbing his ear against his shoulder again.

"NOW it's hidden where you'll never find it!" Haruhi declares happily. "So…" She begins to pace around the young man. "What do you want with my hair? To cut it?"

"What?" Tamaki asks, clearly bewildered by the seemingly random change in topic.

"Sell it?" demands Haruhi, pointing the frying pan at him like a sword.

"Nooo! Listen, the only thing I want to do with your hair… is to get out of it! LITERALLY!" he exclaims, trying feebly to lift his arms from the chair, but they're bound too tightly by strands of golden hair.

"You…. Wait, you DON'T want my hair?" Haruhi asks, looking as though such a thought had never occurred to her.

"Why on earth would I want your hair?" Tamaki demands. "Look, I was being chased, I saw a tower, I climbed it. End of story."

"You're… telling the truth?"

"YES!"

Pascal scampers down the length of Haruhi's arm to the edge of the pan. Getting right up in Tamaki's face, he stares at the young man and narrows his eyes. Haruhi pulls back the pan and begins to whisper softly to the chameleon.

"I know, I need someone to take me," she whispers. Pascal squeaks in response. "I think he's telling the truth too…"

Tamaki looks totally bewildered by the fact that she's having a conversation with a reptile.

"He doesn't have fangs. What choice do I have?"

Tamaki takes advantage of this distraction by trying to scoot the chair away from her.

"Okay, Tamaki Suoh…"

Tamaki freezes.

"I'm prepared to offer you a deal," Haruhi continues.

"Deal?" Tamaki asks.

Haruhi spins the chair around by pulling on her hair. "Look this way."

Tamaki yelps in pain as the chair tips over and he is slammed into the ground yet again… This is just not his day.

Haruhi whips the curtain back to show him her picture of the floating lights. "Do you know what these are?"

Tamaki's voice is rather nasally from being face-down on the floor. "You mean the lantern thing they do for the princess?"

Haruhi blinks, then looks triumphant. "Lanterns? I knew they weren't stars!" she whispers excitedly to herself. Then she turns to Tamaki. "Well, tomorrow evening, they will light the night sky with these… lanterns. You," she points at him with the frying pan, "will act as my guide, take me to these lanterns, and return me home safely. THEN, and only then, will I return your satchel to you. That is my deal."

"Yeahhh…" Tamaki says slowly, managing to twist his body and flip his chair to the side so that he's no longer getting his face squashed into the wooden floor. "No can do. Unfortunately, the kingdom and I aren't exactly…er… 'simpatico' at the moment, so I won't be taking you anywhere."

Haruhi glances at Pascal, who hits one clenched claw into the other open one. Haruhi looks back down at Tamaki and pulls on her hair to pull his chair upright. She grabs the back of the chair and leans in close to Tamaki as he backs away from her rage-filled eyes.

"Something brought you here… Tamaki Suoh. Call it what you will… fate, destiny…"

"I was being chased by a palace guard…"

"So I have made the decision to trust you."

"A horrible decision, really," Tamaki admits with a sigh.

"But trust me when I tell you this," Haruhi continued, leaning in even closer, so close that they are practically breathing in each other's breaths. While she is incredibly focused, Tamaki's pupils dilate a bit at the close proximity. "You can tear this tower apart brick by brick, but without my help, you will never find your precious satchel."

Tamaki clears his throat nervously. "Let me get this straight… I take you to see the lanterns, bring you back home, and you'll give me back my satchel."

"I promise," Haruhi says with a shocking intensity. Tamaki lifts a single regal eyebrow. "And when I promise something, I never EVER break that promise. Ever."

Tamaki sighs dramatically. "Alright, my princess… I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice. Here comes the smolder." He looks up and his violet eyes are suddenly devastatingly intense, as though Haruhi is the only person in the entire universe and he wants nothing more than to be alone with her and undress her and do all manner of unseemly things to her. Romantic music plays and rose petals spontaneously generate around him. Haruhi's eyes narrow and she is utterly unaffected. Tamaki looks a bit puzzled. "This is kind of an off day for me. This doesn't normally happen." He stops the smolder and everything goes back to normal. Tilting his head back in exasperation, he groans out, "Fine, I'll take you to see the lanterns."

"Really?!" Haruhi squeals, letting go of the chair and dropping Tamaki on his face with a thud. "Oops…"

"…You… broke my smolder!" Tamaki whines.

Eventually Haruhi frees Tamaki from her hair and soon he is climbing slowly down the tower wall. "You coming, Princess?" he calls up.

Haruhi stood on the windowsill, her hair in the pulley. She is shaking a little as she stares out at the world outside her tower, the tower she has not left in eighteen years. She takes a deep breath and starts to sing softly.

"Look at the world so close and I'm halfway to it. Look at it all, so big, do I even dare? Look at me, there at last, I just have to do it!" she gasps, looking back at the picture of herself below the floating lights. "Should I? No. Here I go!"

Pascal loops some of her hair around his waist and gives her a thumbs-up. Haruhi nods and then jumps, sliding down her hair, plummeting down to the ground, then coming to a dead stop just inches above the ground. For a moment, she's frozen, quite unable to move. Finally she lowers her bare feet to touch the grass, then she falls to her knees in the grass.

"Just smell the grass, the dirt, just like I dreamed they'd be," she sings, rolling over into the grass to stare at the sky. "Just feel that summer breeze, the way it's calling me!" She stares at a dandelion as the wind scatters its seeds and she starts chasing them, gasping when her feet touch the cold clear waters of the brook. "For like, the first time ever, I'm completely free!" she continues as she tosses water into the air and stares at some bluebirds flying around her. "I could go running and racing and dancing and chasing and leaping and bounding, hair flying, heart pounding, and plashing and reeling and finally feeling that's when my life begins!" As she sings, she races across the clearing and out of the cave, blasting her way through the wall of ivy and jumping for joy in the middle of the forest.

Tamaki finally reaches the ivy wall and stands there for a moment, watching the girl enjoy the forest. He looks a little dazed by her exuberance.

"I can't believe I did this!" Haruhi gasps. Then she looks a little horrified. "I can't believe I did this…" Then she looks ecstatic again. "I CAN'T BELIEVE I DID THIS!" She jumps like an excited child for a moment, then looks terrified again. "Beni would be so furious…"

Tamaki closes his eyes for a moment, realizing that this has 'long day' written all over it.

Haruhi sits down on a rock. "But that's okay. What she doesn't know won't kill her, right?"

Somehow she ends up in a cave, hugging her knees and rocking back and forth.

"Oh my gosh! This would kill her!"

Then she is racing down a hill, kicking a pile of leaves and laughing like a child while Tamaki watches her with his arms crossed.

"THIS IS SOOOOOO FUNNNNN!"

Then she is up in a tall tree, standing with her head against the trunk and her frying pan clutched in one hand.

"I am a horrible and ungrateful girl. I'm going back."

Then she is rolling down a green grassy hill, squealing with joy and getting her long golden hair wrapped around her entire body.

"I AM NEVER GOING BACK! WHEEE!"

Then she is laying face-down in the grass, looking utterly heartbroken.

"I am a despicable human being."

Then she is swinging around a tree, using her hair as a rope, while Tamaki leans against the tree and examines his fingernails.

"BEST… DAY… EVER!"

Finally she is sitting with her back against a giant rock and her face in her hands. Tamaki walks up to her and sits down next to her.

"Ahem," he clears his throat. "You know… I can't help but notice you seem a little at war with yourself here."

"…What?" Haruhi asks.

"Well, I'm only picking up bits and pieces… Overprotective guardian, forbidden road trip… I mean, this is serious stuff. But let me ease your conscience. This is part of growing up. A little rebellion, a little adventure, that's good. Healthy, even." Pascal crawls onto his shoulder and he brushes the chameleon aside.

"You think?" Haruhi asks with a meek smile.

"I know. You're way overthinking this, trust me. Does your guardian deserve it? No. Would this break her heart and crush her soul? Of course. But you've just got to do it."

Haruhi looks horrified. "Break her heart?"

Tamaki casually plucks a small berry from a nearby bush. "In half."

"Crush her soul?" Haruhi whimpers, sounding even more horrified.

Tamaki squeezes the berry until it bursts. "Like a grape."

Haruhi looks like she might explode from all the horror she's feeling. "She would be heartbroken, you're right! My mother trusted her, she'll be so upset that she couldn't keep her promise to my mother!"

"I am, aren't I?" Tamaki asks, sounding just a little smug as he helps her to her feet. "Oh, bother. All right. I can't believe I'm saying this, but… I'm letting you out of the deal."

"What?" Haruhi asks, bewildered.

"Let's turn around and get you home," Tamaki says, picking up the frying pan and Pascal, dropping them into Haruhi's hands. "Here's your pan, here's your frog. I get back my satchel, you get back a mother-daughter relationship built and mutual trust, and voila! We part ways as unlikely friends."

Haruhi shoves him away irritably. "No. I am seeing those lanterns. And hey, whatever happened to all those lines you were spouting earlier about how I should leave the tower and spread my wings and you would never leave my side?"

"Oh give me a break, that's how I charm all the girls!" Tamaki blurted out.

"You're a cad…" Haruhi growls, "but I'm seeing this through, and if you want that satchel back, you have to come with me."

"Oh, come on!" Tamaki exclaims, throwing up his hands in exasperation. "What's it gonna take for me to get my satchel back?"

Haruhi glares and brandishes her frying pan. "I will use this."

There is a rustling in the bushes behind them and Haruhi jumps away and onto Tamaki's back, wrapping her legs and one arm around him, holding the frying pan out in front of both of them with the other arm.

"Is it ruffians?" she yelps. "Thugs? Have they come for me?"

A bunny hops out of the bushes, wrinkling its nose at them.

"Stay calm. They can probably smell fear," Tamaki deadpans.

Haruhi sheepishly untangles herself from Tamaki. "Ohhh… Sorry. Guess I'm just a little jumpy…"

"Probably be best if we avoid ruffians and thugs though," Tamaki says mildly.

Haruhi giggles nervously. "Yeah, that would probably be best."

A shockingly calculating look appears on Tamaki's face. "Are you hungry? I know a great place for lunch!"

"Where?" Haruhi asks eagerly.

Tamaki grabs her frying pan and uses that to pull her along after him. "Oh, don't you worry. You'll know it when you smell it!" And with that, he drags her off into the forest.