A/N: Okay, I'm sorry (again!) that this chapter took so long, and that it's on the short side. I hope you like it anyway.

I do have something to ask you guys about. One of the reasons that this chapter took so long is that I kept getting inspiration for scenes later in the story, and instead of trying to remember them until I reached that part, as soon as I thought about it, I wrote them down. And they just kept coming, and I began to think that it might be better to combine them into a whole new story or something because I don't want to do nothing with them.

So here's my questions for you guys, and please answer them in your reviews.

1. Would you like me to add them at the end of this story- and make it on the long side- or start a new one right after the ending of this story (which generally I planned to be the same as the end of the movie)?

2. If I did write a story set right after the movie, would you guys actually read/review it? I loved writing UA, but it was frustrating sometimes that people didn't really read it. I don't write just to get reviews, but they do keep me going-they provide motivation for me.

3. If yes to #2, what would you want to happen in that story? I was thinking that it would be something like they get used to life in the palace, Rapunzel starts her lessons with Lady Gray, deals with Gothel stuff, and Eugene has to go to court for being Flynn Rider. Though I swear it won't be a copy of Doodlegirl's story or Her Everything [besides that, I can't write about them doing it...just can't do it. Partly because to keep my own integrity as a writer I don't have my characters do anything that I wouldn't do myself-this is within reason of course, because obviously i don't go off and steal crowns like Eugene. And partly because I'm a history major, and them doing that when they weren't married was frowned upon in the time period I've picked (Middle Ages/Renaissance), and was called something that started with an f and ended with n.] but logically it doesn't make sense that the king and queen would just let him live there without some kind of trial (as a poli sci minor, i'm wondering if they actually condemned him without a trial in the movie-which is completely WRONG). I know there's stories like this already (with over 700 stories now in this section it's hard to come up with something completely original), and that's why I need to know you are actually interested in this.

4. If yes to #2, who would you like to be the narrator? Eugene, Rapunzel, or both?

At the end of this chapter, I'm going to give you snippets of the stuff that I've been writing, and you can tell me how you like it.

Much, much 3 to my readers! Thank you for making this my most reviewed story to date!

FL 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Tangled.

Chapter 8-Eugene vs. Himself

These are the times that try men's souls.

-Thomas Paine, The American Crisis

As soon as I was sure Rapunzel couldn't see me anymore, I leaned against a tree and breathed deeply. Wow was all I could think. That last thirty seconds there was like the Sahara Desert. Not, mind you, that I actually knew what the Sahara Desert was like, being that I had never been there (why I would want to go there is up for debate. I wasn't big on camels….or dunes. Cities were more my style. Paris, anyone?). But if I had to guess, it would have been like that, except around ten times hotter.

I think you can tell where I'm going with this: Something was sprouting up between the two of us, but I wasn't sure exactly what to think about it. Whatever it was, though, it was something…..almost sweet. I tried to deny that I was very attracted to her (again), but I somehow couldn't do it. She was just so….incredibly nice. And smart. And brave. And sympathetic. And beautiful. And…

And…basically perfect in every single way. She was one of those kinds of girls who didn't know how nice, smart, brave, sympathetic, beautiful, and attractive she was. Which, of course, made her even more attractive. In fact, the more I got to know her, the….more I wanted to get to know her.

Oh, man, was I in trouble now. If I let my emotions run away with me….things would not turn out pretty. So, what was I going to do? What would Flynnigan Rider do? I evaluated the options.

Well, if he found an attractive girl he would…..option A-do what he wanted to do with her (an option that made me sick considering how innocent Rapunzel was) or, option B- if he liked her enough, pursue some kind of relationship (an option that wouldn't work because we were supposed to go our separate ways tomorrow-she to her tower, and me out of Corona).

Huh. Both outcomes of those options were bad. So much for my old buddy Flynningan. Thanks for nothing! I guess I would have to go with Option C, which was…..Hmmm. Option C, option C-I had to think about that for a minute before I came up with it: suppress my attraction and follow through with her deal. Yes, good. That was the new master plan. It wouldn't be that hard, right? I only had to be tough, resolute ….an island. Just remember, I told myself. You are Mr. Rock, Mr. Island- she has no effect on you. Remember the good old days when you didn't need anybody and took nothing from nobody.

Now that I had psyched myself up, I was about to start actually looking for firewood when I heard a shout.

"No!"

That was obviously her. I frowned. Was she talking to herself again? To her frog? It was soon apparent that she wasn't: I heard someone else say something, but it was too quiet for me to completely discern what it was. All I could make out was- ….how it is…so grown up… little miss. Or, in other words, nothing that made any sense. Curiosity gnawed at me, and I had a strong urge to creep closer. But I knew it was really none of my business who she was talking to or what they were talking about. Still, I couldn't help but be as quiet as possible to see if I could hear anything else:

Random person (or hereafter RP): so sure…him this. Rapunzel (hereafter R): How… RP: This is…with you… …deceive….give…see. R: fine… RP: Ha…watch….as soon…him….fast…floating lights R:…lights….still here. RP: always…child…pet…leave you…give….dreamboat…him R: I will….be sure… RP: that…not if…leaves…you so. R:….wait! RP: No….your choice.

Silence.

I have to say that I did end up creeping closer, but not so close that I knew exactly who she was talking to or what she was talking about. So, I didn't actually know precisely what they were discussing, though I wondered if the "him" they were talking about was me. What other "he" could she know?

Well, I was intrigued. I quickly grabbed some wood, and made my way back to the clearing. While I was walking, I decided-in order to not scare her-I would say something before I saw her, something funny, witty, and brilliant of course….something about how I wished my hand was stronger, because the wood was actually kind of heavy. I also purposefully stepped on a twig. "So, can I ask you something?" I said loudly. "Is there any chance that I'm going to get super-strength in my hand? Because I'm not going to lie-that would be stupendous."

Rapunzel was facing away from me, completely silent. Almost like she hadn't heard me at all. Or almost as if that conversation had….upset and disturbed her. Otherwise I was sure she would have laughed…or at least something to acknowledge that she had heard me.

I couldn't help it- I was concerned about her. "Hey. You all right?"

She looked over her shoulder at me, though her eyes were a million miles away. "Oh. Sorry. Yes," she said. "I'm all right. Just…lost in thought, I guess."

Unbelievable. She was lying- totally and completely lying to me, to my face even (something I hadn't thought she was capable of). She wasn't all right at all. Still, I didn't know what to do because I couldn't very well insist that she tell me what she was upset about. So I resorted to my default: joking. I shrugged, as if it made no difference to me (which it did- a lot), but maybe I could somehow cheer her up. "I mean, because here's the thing," I continued as I began to throw wood on the already sizzling fire. "Superhuman good looks…I've always had them. Born with it. But superhuman strength? Can you imagine the possibilities of this?"

I glanced at her-her eyes were still somewhere else entirely. What was going on with her? I'd never seen her so….completely demoralized before, not even when we were drowning. It was almost like somebody had kicked her puppy or something. Which was absurd because as far as I knew she didn't have one (just a frog). Maybe somebody had told her the world was flat? Or that her lanterns weren't going to happen? That would indeed devastate her.

Soon she started talking again."Yes, superhuman good looks," she said absently. Good. She must be okay enough to have heard me. Relief filled me, though that relief vanished immediately after what she said next. "And did those come from your mother or your father or both?"

I stared at her, shocked that she had actually asked me that. I also stopped putting wood into the fire. "What?" Was she serious? Did she honestly expect me to answer that?

All of a sudden a horrified expression crossed her face, and she sat down (hard!) on the log. "I'm sorry! I wasn't… thinking," she apologized. "You….you don't have to answer that if…if you don't want to."

I believed her- believed that she was sorry and that she wasn't thinking. But that still didn't erase the sick feeling in my stomach. I didn't like to talk about my parents, because thinking about my mother made me too sad, and thinking about my father made me too mad (as in, you don't want to be around me when I'm thinking about him, because you might accidentally get a fist in your face). Besides, most people hadn't actually cared about them- at least not before Rapunzel anyway- and didn't want to hear about them.

I think she looked just as miserable as I felt because her eyes were filled with remorse- as if she understood fully what she had asked me. "I'm sorry, Eugene." She had called me Eugene again. "Like I said, you don't…"

Something…something about her face made me what to tell her though. Maybe she would be the first to listen and try to understand. After all, she had listened to me about the whole Flynn Rider bit. So she wouldn't have asked if she didn't care, right? Even if she hadn't meant to ask me, somewhere deep down she must have wanted to know- not because she was some kind of snoop- but because she was just a sweet girl, who cared about people, even people like me. "No," I said finally as I stared at the fire, basically anywhere but at her. "I'll answer it."

"Okay," she whispered.

I sent my mind backward, back to a time when I had a mother- a lovely mother with sparkling green eyes, and lovely brown hair. "Most of my looks," I said at last, "came from my mother. My father….was never part of the picture, but my mother always told me that I had his eyes." Unfortunately I had his eyes. To be honest with you, I hadn't wanted anything in common with him because he was a scummy, reprobate scoundrel and I loathed him.

"I'm so sorry," she said again. I wasn't sure what she was sorry about. Sorry that she had asked? Sorry that my looks came from my mother? Sorry that she was gone? I suddenly looked at her, almost amazed by the sympathy in her eyes….interest too. "Do you…would you like to hear about her?"

"I would love to," she said quietly. And see the nice thing about her is that she actually meant it. She would love to hear about her. Others might say that they wanted to hear something, but they were only trying to be polite- and secretly wished that you would be quiet so they could go do something else. Or they listened so they could snobbishly tell your secrets to their snobby friends. Of course, Rapunzel wasn't like that at all. She didn't have a smidgen of snobbery in her body.

"You would have liked her," I told her. "She was always so happy, full of sunshine and light. Most of the time she was...more of a playmate than a mother. She was so full of spirit, and she was smart too. And I knew she loved me." You might find this surprising, but I had truly loved my mother- a lot. She was an amazing woman, so sweet and kind. Much like…Rapunzel really (so is it too surprising that I fell for Rapunzel so fast?). "She was actually…a little like you." Now, usually when people tell you that you're like their mother, it's not a good thing, but I could only hope that she would recognize it as the sincere compliment that it was.

She did. "Thank you," she said. "What…what happened to her?"

I stared at the fire again. "She… she…died when I was eleven. Consumption." Or, in reality, she died because my father, once again, was complete scum. Do you want to know what he did? It's a long story, actually, so I'd be surprised if you want to hear it. You do? Really? Well, that's just too bad. You'll have to wait until later in this story- and you'll just have to keep listening to me talk. Ha.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

I looked at her, sympathy not just in her eyes, but empathy too. Like she truly felt sad for me. "Thank you," I said. Then I blinked. How did we get off on that? I do believe it's time to talk about something else, or sleep even. Sleep would be good- I didn't have to worry about how much I was starting to like her if I was asleep. "Right. So, Rap-…" (you'll get nowhere if you call her that!) "….Blondie, we'd better get some sleep if we're going to see the town tomorrow," I told her.

She sighed. "Sure," she agreed.

XXXXXXXX

Soon we said goodnight and found somewhere to lay down- far apart, of course. Ha. I tried not to watch as she- adorably- made a pillow out of her hair, and wrapped it around herself like a blanket. I also tried not to think about her as I went to sleep. Now, usually I fall asleep fast, but that night I did stay awake thinking about her (even though I continued to try not to) and how wonderful I thought she was, especially after she had listened to me so kindly.

It was much harder than I thought it would be to fight my attraction to her, and I had pretty much failed. Instead of keeping the wall up between us, I had started to bring it down again, brick by brick- by telling her about my mother, something I never told anybody else. And she had cared, which made her even more endearing to me.

Ugh. So much for my grand master plan. So much for being Mr. Rock.

What was I going to do now?

Snippets-

That first breakfast was awkwardly awkward. It wasn't just normally awkward, like that meeting with the parents usually is. No, this went to a level far beyond that.

It started pretty much like this. I was sitting there, calmly eating-and trading smiles with Rapunzel-when her father spoke.

"Mr. Rider-…."

Mr. Rider, my foot. "Actually, you can call me Eugene."

"So, Mr. Rider, would you like to share your intentions with us?"

"My…what?"

XXXXXXXXXX

There she was, her arms wrapped around her knees, sobbing like her heart was breaking. I rushed over to her. "Rapunzel?" I said softly.

She immediately looked up, eyes filled with tears. I put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey. What's wrong?"

Her only response was-if it was possible- to cry even harder. But after a few seconds, she looked up again and threw her arms around me, but she still continued to cry. "I thought you left me," she sobbed. "You promised you wouldn't leave me!"

XXXXXXXXX

"So I know now why you acted the way you did," she continued. "But I did know some of it before."

I found that hard to believe. "So Sa-…., I mean Gothel told you about it?"

She grimaced. "No," she said. "She told me babies came from storks."

"You didn't believe her, did you?"

"No," she said. She sighed heavily. "Eugene, I may be…innocent, but I'm not stupid."

I winced, quite sorry that she had gotten that impression. "Of course you're not."

Rant: Part of this was written because I hate how some writers make Rapunzel sound like a ditsy airhead because of her naivety in contrast to Eugene's knowing-ness. Come on! She may be innocent, but she's not stupid! She's exceptionally smart! End of my rant.

XXXXXXXXX

"Ugh," I said. "This grass is so itchy and uncomfortable."

She smiled in amusement. "I'm sure it is just devastated that it doesn't meet your requirements."

I grinned back. I loved how she could tease me too, and almost match my wit. "Well, it should be. I mean, considering that I'm gracing it with my presence."

"Maybe," she said. "It doesn't realize your full importance."

"Oh, that's obvious," I told her. "Otherwise it would immediately turn softer."

"There is," she said. "You know, always the option of not laying on it. In case it decides to not meet your wishes."

I looked at her. "What are you talking about?"

A faint blush crept unto her cheeks. "Well…you could put your head here," she gestured to her lap. "It might be more comfortable. But only if you wanted to."

I think Rapunzel just hit a new level of cuteness. Because seriously, was there anything cuter than what she had just said? "Hmmm," I pretended to consider it (of course I wasn't serious- why wouldn't I want to put my head in her lap, in the lap of the girl I loved most in the world?). "Well, that might actually meet- even exceed- my expectations."

She laughed. "I'm so glad I meet your approval."

"Oh, but of course!" I scouted over to her, and rested my head on her lap. She immediately sighed, and started stroking my hair. Which felt awfully nice.

End of snippets-