This chapter was slower for me because there seemed to be an awful lot of awkwardness in it. I'm vaguely sure that we've passed the half-way point of this fic now. Probably.
Flynn Wanted
~8~
Rapunzel wishes she were braver. She doesn't want to be nervous and afraid when she's alone, but she can't seem to help it, her insecurities always get the best of her. Just having someone, anyone with her makes a difference; once Francis is around, she realises that she isn't scared any more. it's that simple.
So when her newfound companion offers to help her look for 'her friend', she guiltily accepts. While Francis never explained what he was doing in the forest in the first place, it can't have been that important, because he almost trips over himself offering his services as a guide, claims to know all the forest paths inside-out.
Although Rapunzel has some questions – well, a lot of questions, and she knows there's more to him than he gives off – she can't bring herself to ask, because she worries it might make him change his mind; all she wants is for him to stay until she finds Eugene. On her own she doubted if she could really do this – do anything – but with Francis helping, she feels quietly confident, feels safe.
"So... mind if I ask who we're meant to be looking for?" asks Francis after they've packed up and set off; she rides on Max's back while he leads the disgruntled horse by the nose.
"Um..." she hesitates to answer – if she reveals she's looking for a however-falsely wanted criminal, her companion might leave, or worse yet, try to turn Eugene in. "Just a friend," she mumbles awkwardly.
"Oh," the boy's face clouds, clearly disappointed she won't answer him, but he doesn't push her any further; they're both too careful keeping their own secrets to pry where they're not wanted "Well," he tries again, searching for something they might actually make conversation out of. "Where are you from?"
"Out of town," Rapunzel settles for eventually. "I returned Kingdom recently." She thinks for a moment, then adds. "I was away for a long time."
"Ah, that accounts for why I've never seen you around before," he hums brightly, scratching his nose and then tugging Max around a sharp corner, setting off in a direction much to the horse's protest. Max attempts to stomp on the boy's feet every time he steers them away from the Kingdom – instead heading deeper into the forest – but Francis somehow manages to avoid him without even noticing.
"I guess," she mumbles; how he's managed to not recognise her seems caught between miraculous good luck and monumental ignorance.
"Yeah, I'm sure I'd remember a face like yours," he adds with a shy smile, peering over his shoulder at Rapunzel, who laughs uncomfortably.
"You seem to know these forests pretty well," she remarks when the silence becomes awkward.
"I played here a lot growing up," he answers. "Although, I don't know how good I'll be at finding something I don't know I'm looking for." He shoots Rapunzel a pointed look, and she flushes with embarrassment.
"I'm sorry," she pleads with him, eager not to upset her new companion. "Things are just... complicated right now. Once I find, uh – my friend, everything will be all right," she swears, and it's a promise she's making to herself, as well as Francis; the boy heaves a sigh and laughs depreciatingly.
"You can say that again," he huffs with a private understanding, and again hauls Max away from the route home. The horse responds by trying to bite his ear off, which Francis avoids with a shocked air. "This is some badly behaved horse," he exclaims. "Where'd you get a piece like him?"
"Oh no, he's a big softie really," insists Rapunzel with a doting tickle of Max's ears. "He just... doesn't seem to like men very much."
Max grinds to a halt and turns on Rapunzel, eyeballing her in an accusatory fashion – it is not men, general, that he dislikes, just suspicious ones who appear to be up to no good. Which is any man not in uniform as far as he is concerned.
"Gee-up," Francis orders with a firm yank on Max's reins, and the horse snaps for him again, a loud chomp of teeth sounding as he narrowly avoids losing a chunk of his shoulder.
"Jeesh! What's this guy's problem!" he yells, and quick as a flash Rapunzel slides down and puts herself between Francis and the horse; she's more occupied with settling down Max to notice how close she is to her companion, but he does, because he shuffles back a few steps.
"Maybe we should stop for a bit?" she suggests diplomatically, both her hands clamped over Max's jaws to keep him quiet.
"What for?" Francis questions, returning Max's threatening glares with some similarly irate looks of his own.
"Well, you could rest your leg – you are hurt," she suggests.
"I'm fine," he retorts with a sharp tone. "I'm not tired – it's nothing." He claims to be fit, but she's noticed him feeling his wounds and wincing with the pain.
"It's okay, you don't have to put on a brave face," she starts understandingly.
"I'm not!" he snaps, and anger flies out of him in a shocking burst – it's enough to make Rapunzel flinch.
"... All right," she says gently. "I was just... don't worry. Let's keep going, Max," she mumbles humbly, but hesitates as she feels his hand on her shoulder, stopping her from moving on.
"Wait, I'm sorry," he says quietly. "I didn't mean to yell."
"It's okay, Francis," she replies. "I shouldn't have fussed so much. I'm sorry." He doesn't respond, but stares until Rapunzel looks around questioningly, thinking he's watching something behind her.
"What?" she asks, and he starts to blush.
"Nothing. Sorry," he mutters, and then turns away from her, jumping clumsily into a new topic. "So don't you have folks that are worried about you going off into the forest by yourself?" he asks bluntly, and Rapunzel can't help a sigh, her shoulders sinking into a slouch as she imagines how her parents might be faring back in the Kingdom – she hopes they got her note, and aren't fretting too much.
"I guess... kinda. Probably. My mom and dad... well, I didn't exactly tell them I was leaving, More like..."
"Ran away?" he cuts in, and she nods bashfully; but he doesn't seem judgmental, even smiles almost encouragingly.
"I know they'll be worried, but... I have to do this," she insists strongly. "I'm eighteen now, I'm meant to be an adult, right?"
"Sure you are, it's your life isn't it?" he points out brightly. "You should be able to do what you want. That's what I always say." The rhetoric sounds comfortingly familiar, and Rapunzel bets that Francis and Eugene would probably get along with such similar approaches to life.
"Yeah... you're right!" she says, bubbling with new surge confidence. "Let's keep going!" She paces forwards with a new boost of enthusiasm, but slows as a thought comes back around on her. "Hey, don't you have parents who'll be worried over you?" she inquires.
"I doubt it," Francis answers with a stony, awkward bitterness. "I don't have a family, not one who care about a nobody like me." A sudden self-hatred seethes from him as he speaks – in spite of his attempts to seem lighthearted – so Rapunzel stops, turns around to face the boy.
"Wait a sec," she says, and grabs him by the shoulders before he can walk past her, forces his eyes up to meet hers. "Don't talk like that about yourself. I bet there's plenty of people who care about you," she insists, but Francis shrugs emotionlessly, then twists away.
"Sure, whatever. Let's just keep looking," he says sourly, turning from her and pushing ahead through the woods; but he doesn't go more than a few steps before he turns around again and comes back. "I'm sorry, Pascal," he gushes suddenly, and it takes Rapunzel a second to realise he's talking to her. "I just... it's – it's complicated and... and I-"
"It's okay," she cuts in, setting a hand on his shoulder again – she can see he's conflicted, as she knows a fair bit about conflict herself. "I didn't mean to be nosy, it's really none of my business. If you want to talk, I'm here – but only if you want to," she makes sure to emphasise, and sees a faint smile return to his face.
"Thanks," he breathes, and she can actually feel his body relaxing; he dares to smile openly, and tilts his head slightly to the side. "Yunno, I think you must be the nicest person I ever met."
"Ohh... you're just saying that," she evades, turning her hands up in a cheery shrug. "Anyone would do the same."
"No they wouldn't," he insists. "Really, you're amazing, Pascal." Rapunzel carries on smiling for a moment, trying quite hard not to start giggling, but then her humour dampens suddenly, and she withdraws her hand.
"We should keep looking," she says quietly; as they carry on walking, she wonders if she should have been a little clearer about what kind of friend she was looking for, but then quickly denies anything her intuition tells her.
The last thing she wants to do is make assumptions about Francis, or worse yet, hurt his feelings. Not when he's already so sensitive and volatile. She hopes it's nothing, that it'll go away.
The sooner she finds Eugene the better – once he's back everything will make sense again; the tangle of problems will come loose. Everything will be as it should be. Rapunzel resolves even more desperately to find Eugene no matter what.
However, she doesn't find him, even though she and Francis search all day – when night falls again it's still just her, Max and Francis walking in what feel like endless circles. Eventually they're forced to surrender to the darkness, and settle down to camp for the night.
"Aren't you going to sleep?" Rapunzel asks when she notices Francis sat by the campfire, his posture tight and determined, showing no intention to rest.
"I wouldn't be able to," he says glibly. "I'm gonna keep watch, you sleep."
Rapunzel zips upright and fixes the boy with an intimidating look – something she must have learned from Gothel, because it sends chills all the way across the back of her target's neck.
"No way," she states point-blank. "You need to rest just as much as I do – in fact, you're hurt so you need it even more. Max can keep watch for us, he'll wake at the first signs of trouble." She pats the tired, snoozing horse on the flank and he awakes with a shrill whinny, then glares at Francis as if he is somehow responsible. "I'm not moving til you sleep," Rapunzel adds, until eventually Francis groans, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
"Jeesh, here I am trying to do the gentlemanly thing," he murmurs evasively. "I don't reckon I can sleep anyways," he argues. "I've got too much to think about."
"Well, better to sleep on it than stay up worrying – it never helps me, so I bet it won't help you either," she tells him firmly.
"C'mon, what are you, my mom?" he whines, but she refuses to give up.
"It's easy, just lie down and close your eyes," she instructs, as if the motions are unfamiliar to him.
"All right, all right," he surrenders in the end, "but on one condition." He hesitates for a moment, like he's trying to decide what to say right down to the word. "Because, it'd help... I mean, I'd be able to – if you could... well, sing again?" he fumbles out at last.
Rapunzel looks aghast – almost ashamed that he remembered her singing at all. It wasn't something she'd thought about, she did it unconsciously. It's a habit she finds curiously hard to beat – whenever she sees someone injured, the words will come tumbling from her lips before she can think to stop them.
"Uh... did I sing?" she mumbles in embarrassment. "Maybe you just dreamt it."
"Aw c'mon," he berates. "I knowI didn't imagine it. It's not embarrassing, you sing really well – it's just a lullaby, right?"
But it isn't just a song, it's responsible for everything she's ever loved or feared – that song and its magic were what took her from her home and parents, kept her locked away for nearly two decades, kept her with Gothel – isolated and lied to. Yet it also protected her, gave her strength – it saved Eugene when nothing else could; her hair, the song and their magic have made her who she is – shaped her life before she was even born. When Rapunzel is scared, hurt, or alone, the words are still her comfort.
She doesn't want to sing on command, like Gothel used to make her – like a songbird in a cage, but Francis looks at her in such a cajoling way that she dithers over the decision. It's not that she doesn't want to say no, so much as she doesn't want to explain why.
In the end, she figures maybe it's better to give in to his request and get it over with; it's easier than making excuses, or worse yet, lying.
"... Okay," she relents weakly, "but you have to lie down and close your eyes," she insists, so he does as she says and settles on his side by the fire, resting his head on his hands; he looks much more like a child that way – like he was when she first found him.
"Whenever you're ready," he murmurs, and he sounds gentle, not hard and demanding like Gothel; it's enough to convince Rapunzel it isn't the same, so she takes a deep breath.
"Flower gleam and glow..." she forces timidly, but from there it's easy. She's learned the song by reflex; she could – and probably has – sung it in her sleep. "Let your power shine, make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine..."
She thinks inevitably of Eugene coming back – of things being put right. Everything as it should be, everyone happy. It helps, and she relaxes herself, until her own eyes drift closed.
"Heal what has been hurt, change the fates' design, save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine, what once was mi-"
She breaks off when she hears sharp, frantic rustling from the woods around her, and coils into a ball with a shriek of fright. Francis responds to her cry and sits up with a yelp, looking around wildly for the disturbance.
Then comes the shout. One word, one voice, and Rapunzel's heart shoots all the way up her throat into her head and pounds there until she's dizzy. Without warning, she leaps to her feet and pelts towards the place the voice came from.
"Rapunzel?.!" is the single disbelieving cry, and then he bursts into sight, hair matted with twigs and two days stubble shadowing his face.
"EUGENE!" she screams, and flies at him like a wave crashing over the shore. She launches clear off the ground and lands around his chest; his arms flail in shock as she clambers, toes and fingers digging into any grip they can find on him. "Eugeneisitreallyyou? Areyouokay? Areyouhurtanywhere?" she chatters in language unintelligible to human ears, wrapped around him like a manic spider-monkey.
"Rapun-" he begins, but finds her thumb hooked into the corner of his mouth and tugged open as she peers at his teeth for an unknown reason. "Rampumzel," he mumbles through her frantic inspection.
"Hey!" he barks at last, yanking her hand out of his mouth with mild distaste. "Calm down."
"But Eugene!" she chirrups in protest. "I thought-youwere-killedor-shotor-drowned-orhanged-or-"
"Words," Eugene pleads with her. "Use your words, Rapunzel."
Instead she kisses him, hard and clumsy on the mouth, which isn't exactly what Eugene asked her to do, but he can't find it in himself to complain.
However, while one part of him has missed her so much he wants nothing more than to wrap his arms around her so conveniently-placed body and just go with it, he has a lot of questions he'd like to know the answers to, so eventually pries her away and snatches a breath.
Then he hears the noises ahead – Rapunzel isn't alone, he's guessed that much already, and they both freeze in anticipation; her legs are wrapped around his waist, one of his hands pushing one of hers away from his face, the other holding her against him.
"Eugene?" a young, male voice asks suspiciously, and Rapunzel becomes a bundle of thrashing limbs again as she slings herself half-way around him, points over Eugene's shoulder to her new friend. He's not entirely sure how it happens, because one minute she's facing him, the next she's hawking over his shoulder.
"How did you do tha-" he begins, but she cuts him off just as the boy runs into view.
"Eugene," she interrupts loudly; not noticing his brow crease for a second, before his eyes widen and his jaw drops. "This is my new friend..."
"Francis-"
"Francis," they say identically. Realisation hits Francis like a hard slap in the face.
"Eugene?" he screams, staggering back a step. He stares at Rapunzel wrapped around her 'friend' like a scarf, like it's the most natural thing in the world to her, and a moment later realises what he called her – who she is. "Wait, Rapunzel!" All the pieces click together at once, and he takes another stumbling step – then, when shock evaporates from him, he puts a hand on a tree and quickly turns.
"HEY!" Eugene belts, trying to sprint after Francis as he flees. "Wait!" he bellows, but it's too late, because the boy is nothing but a shadow disappearing into the forest.
When you see '!.?' it's because has ingeniously decided that double punctuation marks are a no-no or something, therefore making the use of the interrobang (or nearest typed equivalent) impossible. Which makes me sad in my grammar heart.
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