A/N: Hey again! Sorry this one took a while, I'm not having as much time to write :( But it's up now, and that's all that matters. So anyway, prepare yourself for some cutesy stuff :) Also, while I was writing the part where they're dancing, I was listening to Kingdom Dance, so if you wanna listen to that while you're reading it, that'd kinda show you what I was going for :)

I don't own Tangled. Goodness, if I did, that thing would be 16 hours long, no joke. I'd probably make it be like, their whole lives. Then again, I couldn't write all this fun fanfiction about everything that doesn't happen in the movie, so perhaps it's better that IIIIIIIII stay here, but tell me, when will my life begin? Sorry bout that, little bursting into song there.

On with the chapter!

"You're almost there, Rapunzel!" Eugene encouraged, standing at the bottom of the tower, guiding Rapunzel through the process of climbing down.

When she was a foot or so away from the ground, he put his hands around her waist and lifted her off, twirling her around once before setting her back down as Rapunzel giggled in delight.

"Max!" Rapunzel exclaimed, noticing their horse friend standing there. "Did you bring Eugene here?"

Maximus gave a proud nod.

"Aw, you're such a good boy, yes you are!" she cooed, running over to him and petting him affectionately.

"It's a pretty interesting story. Do you want to talk more in the morning?" he asked her, as they both looked tired.

Rapunzel smiled.

"It is morning, Eugene."

"Oh, right…"

"But I'm fine with taking a little nap and then setting out. I hardly got any sleep last night." Rapunzel quickly responded.

"Sounds good to me." Eugene said.

"What time do you even think it is?" Rapunzel asked, looking at the sky for a clue.

"Too early A.M." Eugene responded.

Rapunzel laughed.

"Can we camp out and pretend like it's night, though?" she requested hopefully, stretching her arms above her head.

Eugene grinned.

"Sure, Blondie. If you help me get some firewood." He agreed, even though the sun had risen and broken through the dark, foggy morning clouds, and there was no need for a fire. He already knew Rapunzel would want one, after she had been so enchanted by the one he had lit the other night.

She took his hand and ventured into the forest with him.

"So what do you do?" Rapunzel asked, lightly swinging their hands back and forth.

"Well, you get sticks and chunks of wood, and, uh, I don't know!" Eugene tried to explain.

The two returned to Maximus laughing and arms loaded with wood. That is, until Rapunzel spotted Gothel's cape lying on the ground.

Reality crashed down on her, and she realized that Gothel was gone. She had known it before, but for the first time, it really…struck her. She inhaled sharply and a single tear escaped.

"Eugene…" she sighed. "What am I…What am I supposed to do? I know she wasn't my real mother, and she probably wasn't the best one, but…I still feel horrible, and like I'll miss her. Because I know I loved her, in a way. Is that wrong?"

Eugene bent down to drop the wood and wrapped his arms around her, and though he had never been the best at comforting women, he slowly answered her question.

"Well, I don't think so. I mean, you were with her and you thought she was your mother for pretty much your whole life. Even though she really wasn't, and she wasn't the best mother, she took care of you for eighteen years. I don't think it's wrong; you can never go back and change things, so no matter what, she'll always be the one who took care of you for eighteen years."

Rapunzel nodded her head and slowly let out a breath. "I think you're right. All of this is going to take a lot of getting used to, huh?"

Eugene could only imagine how much getting used to it would take. Over sixty-nine less feet of hair, realizing the person you thought was your mother your whole life was not your mother, and instead, your real mother was the Queen, making you the Princess. The Lost Princess, at that.

oOo

"Eugene?" Rapunzel asked as Eugene was lighting the fire after they had selected a spot in the woods where it wasn't as bright. As he'd expected, she had insisted on him lighting it, though it was early morning and there was plenty of light, because they were supposed to be pretending it was nighttime, and she "loved the smell and feeling of it".

"We never really did get to dance." She stated simply.

"I know. It's okay, I'm really not that great of a dancer."

"Oh, yes you are, I saw you! You're wonderful."

"Whatever you say, Blondie."

"…Eugene?" she asked a few minutes later.

"What?"

"We didn't finish that dance." Rapunzel repeated.

"I know, Rapunzel. I'm sorry."

"Can we finish it?"

Although Eugene didn't mind the idea at all of dancing with Rapunzel in the middle of the forest he gave her a dramatic sigh.

"Don't try to smolder me out of it, Eugene. I've made up my mind, I want you to dance with me." Rapunzel cut in.

Eugene smirked and complied. He stood up, bowed, and held out his hand.

"May I have this dance, fair princess?" He asked in a formal voice.

"You may." She said, still sitting and sweetly reaching one hand up and placing it in his.

Seeing that Rapunzel had no intention of standing up by herself, he sighed as he responded, "I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice."

"I told you, it's not going to - " Before Rapunzel could finish her reply back to reprimand him that the smolder wouldn't work and that he shouldn't even try it, he swept her off the ground and into his arms.

"Eugene!" she squealed, gripping his vest for dear life, as he twirled around in circles swiftly. She looked up to see his face, not expecting what she saw. He was looking into her eyes, wearing his signature smolder.

"Eugene!" she laughed once again. "I told you the smolder wouldn't work!"

But this time, Rapunzel saw something…different. He wasn't just flirting with some random girl to get what he wanted, and Rapunzel could see it in his amber orbs. It was a sense of affection and admiration.

Eugene broke into a goofy grin and didn't reply as he kept spinning her.

"Eugene! Eugene, put me down!" Rapunzel shrieked, in spite of all her laughter and how much fun she was having. "Eugene, I'm getting dizzy!" she tried again, as her requests were ignored.

Before too long, Eugene got dizzy too (though he would never admit it. Getting dizzy was such a girl thing), and began stumbling and losing his sense of balance. Tripping over his foot, he lost his balance and fell to the ground beside the fire, Rapunzel falling at his side.

"Oh, come on, lazy, let's dance some more!" Rapunzel pleaded after their laughter had subsided, sitting up on her knees.

"I already did, Rapunzel."

"You already did. But if I remember correctly, I was in the air the whole time. Therefore, I did not dance, which means you didn't dance with me, like I requested." Rapunzel told him proudly, crossing her arms over her chest.

Eugene groaned and lifted up his arm. Immediately, Rapunzel grabbed his fingers and yanked him off the ground, into a dance with her.

They danced and danced around the fire, sometimes clumsily, sometimes gracefully, their laughter ringing out into the sweet, warm, summer "night" air. No music could be heard except for the rustling of grass beneath their feet, the campfire's crackle, and the sound of their joyous laughter, but neither seemed to notice or mind it. It really didn't matter though, and one might never notice it, because you could almost hear a song just by the way they danced, the way their feet pitter-pattered on the grass, or the way they looked at each other.

They spun around in circles, holding hands, at arms length. Eugene lifted up his hand, which was entwined with hers, and Rapunzel twirled under it, smiling brightly. She returned to his arms, and they continued twirling and dancing and spinning and skipping and jumping, not caring how they looked, because it didn't matter. It only mattered that they were here, together, in each other's arms "tonight". Rapunzel relished the warm feeling of Eugene's arms around her, breathing in the sweet campfire scent. She closed her eyes and imagined they were dancing in Corona's streets, under the dark, night sky, feet pattering on the warm, cobblestone pavement. Her heart pounded against her chest in excitement, her skirt was twirling every which way, her hair was flying, and oh, it was perfect.

Suddenly, Rapunzel tripped over a small pebble on the ground and she lunged forward, grasping for Eugene's strong arms to steady her. Eugene reached out his arms, which preformed their needed task, and held her tightly. Coincidentally, they ended up in the same position they had the night before, as the dance on the kingdom square ended, except this time Rapunzel's feet had ended up on Eugene's boots, causing him to wobble and eventually fall over, Rapunzel falling on top of him.

"Guess we're not too good at this not falling thing, huh?" Eugene said as Rapunzel rolled over onto the grass beside him, giggling the whole time.

"Nope. But I'm glad you'll always be here to catch me."

Eugene smiled and pulled Rapunzel into his lap and rested his head on hers.

"Eugene? Will you tell me a story?" Rapunzel asked, looking up at his handsome features.

"Like what?"

"I don't know. You told one last time."

"How about the one about how I came to your rescue?"

It occurred to Rapunzel that she really didn't know how he came to her rescue. The night before, when Eugene left, he had promised he'd be right back. She remembered hearing low, intimidating voices and a loud thud not long after he'd left. Later, she thought she saw him coming toward her, but it turned out to be two scary, huge men who wanted her hair and told her that Eugene had left her, which she couldn't bring herself to believe. They had even given her proof, she saw him sailing away herself, but she still couldn't believe it. When she got back to the tower, Mother – or, rather, Gothel – told her Eugene was to be hanged. The next thing she knew, he was climbing up her hair to get in the tower. How had he come to her rescue?

"Okay." She agreed, settling down comfortably in his lap to hear the story.

"Well, last night, when I went to go meet those men on the beach, I tried to give them the crown, because as you might have noticed, they were creepily stalking us." He explained, earning a laugh from the girl at his side.

"And then, I didn't even want it anymore. I just wanted to be with you. Suddenly, I realized that I didn't care about all those islands and castles and money anymore. They didn't matter to me. You were what mattered to me. So anyway, I tried to give it back to them. But they didn't want it. They said they wanted you instead, and before I could do anything, they knocked me out and tied me to a boat with the crown in my hand."

Rapunzel nodded. "They came to me and told me that you ran off with the crown and left me. Then they made it sound like you had made a deal with them, something about trading the crown for me and my hair. I ran away, and they were chasing me, but then Mother – I mean, Gothel - knocked them out and said she followed me."

"Ah, so we had three people stalking us, did we? We must be quite the popular couple!" Eugene said, Rapunzel giving him a playful shove in response.

"Finish your story." She commanded.

Eugene smiled at her and went on. "Well, the guards found me and put me in prison. I couldn't sleep all night; I was too worried about you. At dawn, the guards came and got me to hang me. As they were leading me out of the prison, the Snuggly Duckling guys busted me out, and it turned out Maximus brought them there. Then, I came to save you, and you know the rest. What about you?"

"Well, she took me back to the tower with her, and she took out my braid that those little girls did and she kept repeating to me how awful the world was. And then after she left, that was when I realized that I was the Lost Princess. I told her, and at first she acted like she didn't hear me. She kept denying it, and she told me that you were to be hanged. When I told her I wouldn't let her use my hair anymore, she chained me and gagged me, and while she was packing things up she told me we were leaving to go somewhere no one would find me, and that I would never get out again. And then you came." Rapunzel explained.

"I'm sorry, Rapunzel." He whispered.

"It's okay, Eugene. It wasn't your fault. I'm sorry for letting this happen to you." She said, moving her hand to the place where Eugene was stabbed. "And I wasn't mad at you at all, it just hurt that I knew I probably would never see you again. I didn't want to believe you'd left."

"Hey, it wasn't your fault." He whispered soothingly, rocking her back and forth in his lap. They sat this way for quite a while, content to just be in each other's presence.

Soon, the two drifted off into a sweet sleep, dreaming of the times to come. Sure, the future was uncertain, and he knew their lives would never be the same, but they knew everything would be well worth it to be together.

A/N: REVIEW, dearies!