Eugene's POV:

"Climb down my hair?" Rapunzel suggests.

At first I just stare at her. If you had told me about 3 weeks ago that I would willingly sit in a princess' room for 9 hours, without stealing anything, waiting for her to come back from her prince charming, so I could climb down her magical 70 feet of hair and go somewhere with her because she said she wanted to; I would have punched you unconscious just to give you a few moments of relaxation before you had to wake up and be crazy again. Then I would have stolen everything on you, because that was the type person I was. But here I am. Here, standing right in front of said princess, about to do it all in one night.

I look at her face for any sign that she might be joking, but I don't find one, so I ask, "... You're kidding me, right?"

She almost laughs, "Well, how do you think we're going to get out of here?" Before I can respond she walks to her balcony and tosses her hair to the ground. After a little while she looks at me, "Are you coming or what?"

I slowly make my way towards her. When I'm an arm's length away, she stretches out her hand to give me her hair. I look at her hand waiting for her to stop joking when she impatiently rolls her eyes and shoves the hair in my hand. Though I still can't believe the situation I'm in, I've accepted the fact that she's serious and climb up the railings of the balcony.

And just as I'm about to jump, "What if it hurts you?" I ask.

"It won't!" she says excitedly, and then she pushes me off!

I almost scream. I want to scream. I've made the jump before and it didn't end well. I even think as I'm falling that I wasn't as concerned about Rapunzel's hair as I was scared of this specific balcony. I brace myself as dart towards the bush and suddenly stop right above it. Still hyperventilating, I look up and see Rapunzel laughing at me and my stupid phobia.

I put my feet on the ground and try to seem like a wasn't frazzled, "Psh! That was- that was great... The adrenaline, and the, unbelievable height! Just so much fun!" I say nonchalantly.

She sees my bluff, "You can come back up and do it again!" she giggles

"Or not! Let's go with not!"

The princess smiles and gets ready to jump off herself. She loops her hair around the railing and grips the end, and unlike me, bounces off without hesitation.

She looks at me as soon as she hits the ground, as if she just showed me how it's done. I smile at her. Jumping off the balcony may be the wildest thing she's done. The wildest thing she'll ever do. The realization makes me sad, for sure, but I hide it. This is more her moment than mine, and I'm going to let her enjoy it.

She hops up on her feet and takes my hand. When she looks at me, her green eyes are wide with excitement, "Come on!" She says yanking me into the darkness. At first I can't see a thing, but when my eyes adjust, I see trees, I try to look for other landmarks, but that's it. Trees. We're in the forest.

I doubt she'll answer me, but I ask anyway, "Where are we going?"

"It's a secret."

"What time is it?"

"Well, the sun just went down. So probably six."

"Are we going far?"

"Not really."

I don't ask any more questions. I just let her lead me into nothingness. What's strange is walking in a forest full of identical trees at night should be creepy. But even though it's a cloudy night, none of the clouds followed us here, all the stars are out and the light from the stars reach the trees in such a way that make the trees sparkle. It's like a walking around glitter. I honestly have no idea how she has any clue where we're going. It's not just that it's dark, the surroundings look exactly the same. After about ten minutes of random routes around the woods. We stand in front of a tree that's much wider than all the others. Rapunzel grins and squeezes my hand and points to the tree.

"What?" I ask

"Look closer."

I squint my eyes and lean forward trying to find something. I take awhile, so she nudges me and gives me a hint, "What on that tree doesn't look like it belongs in a forest?" I scan the tree for a few more seconds when I see a thin golden ribbon tied around a stub on the tree.

"Okay. It's a ribbon."

"This is how I always find my way back," she says quietly and starts to walk behind the big tree. I follow her and find the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life. The area is cleared of trees for about twelve yards, and right in the middle is a lake. Everything in the forest seems to sparkle, but here, because of the water, glitter dances and it's the most amazing thing ever. I'm still taking it all in when I see Rapunzel taking her dress off in the corner of my eye!

"What are you doing?!" I say

She looks at me like it's obvious, "Swimming. Come on!" She yanks of her dress and wears nothing but a shift underneath. The chemise is almost see-through, but not quite. Either way, I don't look. If this was any other girl, I'd stare, but this is Rapunzel. My Rapunzel. Well, not my Rapunzel...

Distracted by what she was doing, I forgot one crucial detail, "I can't swim..."

She walks to the edge of the lake and chuckles, "Right..." she says sarcastically before diving in. I step forward and wait for her to come back up.

1...2...3...4...5...6...

She's been there awhile. What if she drowned? I'll have to jump in and save her! But I can't swim, if I go in we'll both drown. But I can't just do nothing! Maybe I should ask for help? But how on earth would I explain it? I'll go to jail, or get killed. It doesn't matter! It'd have been my fault anyway! I'll just run back to the kingdom and-

"Wait. You're serious? You really can't swim?"

I gawk at her, "Phew! Dont. Do that!"

"Do what?"

"That- that going under water for a million years thing!"

She laughs, "I was there for ten seconds!"

"Well, in fish time, that's about a million years!"

When her laughter dies down she just floats there and smiles at me, "Eugene?"

"What?!" I say, still hyper

"Do you want to get that swimming lesson you never had?"

I walk over to a rock by the lake and sit, "I'll just wait for you to finish, thank you." When I look back to the lake she's disappeared again. Before I can jump to crazy conclusions again, I'm pulled into the water. I don't think. I flail my arms all over the place, kick back and forth and breathe deep, but water makes its way in and I'm coughing.

"Help!" I scream

"Calm down!"

"I'll drown!"

"Just put your feet-!"

"AHHHH!"

"EUGENE! It's elbow deep!"

I freeze. My feet sink to the ground, but half my body is still above water. When Rapunzel finishes laughing, she goes, "You're wet! Might as well take that lesson!"

I grunt and she comes towards me. She stops when our noses are mere inches apart, centimetres if she was taller. I'm not drowning, but I still can't breathe. She touches my heart and it's good thing my vest is so thick, otherwise she'd feel how fast it's beating. That's when everything I've been trying to deny just bursts and my brain was finally able to put the words together. As much as I tried to resist it, I thought the thought that I've desperately tried not to think:

I was in love with Rapunzel.

I loved her because she was the girl who could have killed me, but didn't. The girl who treated me like a friend, instead of a thief. The girl that complicated everything I thought I was.

The only girl in the world I can't have.

Before my instincts made me do anything stupid, I felt her small hand tug my vest, pulling it off. I feel like I've dreamed for her to do something like that forever, but it's a rush of feelings that only came to me now.

She doesn't break eye contact for awhile, then she steps behind me to put the vest on the rock, "You better take your shoes and your shirt off too!"

I sigh quietly. Now that I've been able to admit my feelings for Rapunzel, it's all different for me. But I'm still the same Eugene to her. The selfish part of me wants her to feel the same, even if we can't be together. The other part hopes she never sees me as anything more than a friend and that she could fall in love with her prince. It's scary how much has changed in the last minute.

I remove my boots and shirt and watch her as she looks me up and down. After awhile she giggles and takes my arm.

"What?" I say grinning at her laugh.

"Nothing! It's just, I always thought I'd teach my own children to swim here someday, and here I am about to teach a grown man!"

I almost reply, but my foot slides downward and I slip, "Woah! Damn. This lake gives no warning! Shallow one end, deadly deep in another!"

"Warning's are for the weak," she smirks, "With that being said... BREATHE IN!"

"Huh? Wha!"

I'm suddenly submerged in water. Freaking out, I plug my nose, shut my eyes and tense up, which only makes me sink deeper. I accept that it's time to die when Rapunzel touches my eye lids and gently pushes them up, opening them. She points at her nose telling me to unplug, so I do. And then so points at her feet showing me how to... not sink. I imitate her movements and start kicking in circles. Nodding her head, she pushes herself into a horizontal position with her hands and kicks up and down to move forward. When I'm able to do the same thing, she holds my arm and takes us up.

We breathe in hard and I ask, "How'd I do?"

"Not yet! Breathe in again!"

This time I'm ready when we go under. My blink my eyes open and see Rapunzel's already way deeper than me. I try to catch up to her, which turns out to be easier than I thought. When I'm beside her, she looks surprised, then smiles and claps for me. I'd be blushing if I wasn't so manly and so far in a lake. Tiny bubbles escape from her nose and she goes on swimming, dancing and twirling in the water. I smile. I can't believe almost didn't take the chance to experience this! Once again, it was Rapunzel who pushed me out of my comfort zone, which turned out to be a place I loved. I follow her and move around her. While she's actually dancing, I'm flapping my arms, trying to fight buoyancy.

After what could've been hours, but obviously wasn't, we emerge.

As I catch my breath and wipe the water from my eyes, Rapunzel splashes at me in a giggling fit, " 'I never learned how to swim' ", she says mimicking me, "Eugene! You're practically a fish!"

I laugh and splash her back, starting a war that lasts awhile. She squeals and I yell all in good fun, when out of nowhere the splashing stops and arms wrap around me. As much as I'd love to hug her back, I put all my energy in keeping us both afloat, but I'm not complaining. She puts her chin on my shoulder and puts her lips by my ear, "Thanks for coming here with me,"

I chuckle softly, "Thanks for being my first and only swimming teacher," I say. She releases and just looks at me, "How did you ever find this place anyway?"

"Well," she starts as we make our way to the shallow area and sit on a rocky corner, "once when I was a kid, maybe about 6 years old, I threw a huge tantrum, I used to be quite the brat,"

"I can't imagine."

"Well, I was. I was complaining that my parents never let me do anything fun. They would usually never give in to my tantrums, but this one went on for months! So finally, on the day I refused to come out of my bedroom unless I was going to do something exciting, my mother said she'd take me to a magical forest! And she took me here. I couldn't swim yet so I played around here," she touches the shallow rock, "my mother washed my hair as I went back and forth. We spent the entire day here, and by the end of it, she made very sure that I understood that we couldn't come back. I said I understood, but-"

"But instead, you took a gold ribbon, tied it around that tree trunk and came back by yourself and made it your own private paradise?"

"Exactly." She smiled, " But not alone. I've only been here with three people; my mother, Triala and you," she says, "all people I love." She continues without thinking. We both realize what she said at the same time and look at each other. We cut the awkward silence with an even more awkward laugh.

"Why am I one the people you lo- I mean- uh- one of the people you took here?" I ask looking down

"My mother was my first best friend. Triala is my best friend forever. And you... well, you're my best friend who I can talk about anything with."

Friend

What did I expect? Some sort of crazy expression of love? No. I was her friend. Apparently one of her best friends, but I think I can learn to be okay with that... someday.

"You're my best friend who I can talk about anything with! The stuff I can't tell mother and Triala about. How much I wish I could escape my crazy complicated royal life."

I wish I could tell her I understand part of her complications, but my petty feelings that can't be returned are nothing compared to what she's going through. I don't understand what she's going through. Nobody does. Anyone that tries to comfort her by telling her they get it is a liar. I can't seem to spit those words out of my mouth, so I just hold her hand. She squeezes it for a minute and stands up, pulling me with her.

"We should go. It's probably seven-thirty. I'll be late for dinner."

And I'll be late for my fisherman-get-together-thing with Red and Chuck. But I'm too relaxed to worry about getting there on time, she seems to be too. We put our clothes back on, while we're still damp and walk back to the kingdom hand-in-hand.

I glance back at the golden ribbon when we leave the lake and picture a young Rapunzel telling her mother she left something and going back to tie it there. Smart girl.

"Eugene?"

"Mmm..." I say feeling too surreal to speak.

"I'm really glad you tried to steal my crown."

I grin in the moonlight, "Me too."

She then stands on her tip-toes a pecks my cheek. And just like that, my day is perfect.