A/N: Yay, everyone! I'm baaaack! Vacation was amazing and worth the 16 hr drive there, and I got some good writing inspiration! Anyway, here's chapter six! I'm not sure I'm happy with the title, I just came up with it real fast just now, because I wanted to post this. I might change the title later, I don't know. This one's kinda long, but I didn't want to split it up. So, enjoy this long chapter!

Yet again, if I said my disclaimer, it would be hoarse, because, unfortunately, I was smashed in between my two sisters on the way there, and one of them was sick. So guess who's sick now? Me. And just when my voice was coming back. Now it's gone again. :P.
I don't own Tangled. :P.

"Eugene!" Rapunzel squealed. "It's the beach!"

He laughed.

"I know. We went to the one at the other side of the bridge for a little bit yesterday, remember?"

"I know, but I just love it!" she said, digging her toes in the sand. "Come on!" she grabbed his hand and pulled him next to her in the sand.

"Hold on, hold on, let me at least take my boots off."

Rapunzel let go of his hand and agreed, and Eugene sat down to take off his boots.

"I like your boots." Rapunzel commented.

"Well, thanks, I guess. You ever thought about wearing shoes, Blondie?" Eugene laughed.

Rapunzel blushed and looked down at her bare feet.

"Mother always said I should wear them. But they're just not comfortable or practical. And I feel so free without them!" she explained.

"I guess you'd get used to it. But doesn't it hurt to not wear shoes?"

"Not really," she said, "I really never have, so I guess my feet are used to it."

"Maybe you should teach me to do that sometime. Could sneak around a lot quieter without shoes. And I thought I was the greatest thief! Blondie, I think you'd make a good one, too."

"I could teach you, but you're not a thief anymore, right? You won't need to know how to sneak around."

Eugene shook his head. It was going to be an adjustment going back to Eugene Fitzherbert. That is, if they made it through town without him getting caught and killed. "Oh, right. But I may need to sneak around to protect you." He said, standing up and snaking his arms around her waist.

"I think a frying pan should be sufficient. After all, you were the one who attracted all those guards and thugs and things after us." Rapunzel replied.

Eugene smiled and took her hand, bringing her to the shoreline.

Rapunzel smiled a coy smile and leaned her free hand down into the water.

"Gotcha!" she squealed, bringing her hand back up and splashing Eugene.

Eugene cocked an eyebrow.

"You asked for it, 'Punzel." He said, scooping up a handful of water and splashing the girl next to him.

After splashing each other a few more times, Rapunzel cupped her hands together and filled them with water. She brought her hands close to Eugene's face and broke them apart, and the water fell down on his nose.

She gave him a satisfied grin. Yes, I just spilled water all over your oh-so-beautiful nose.

"Oh-ho, Blondie, this is on." He said, wiping his nose off and looking straight at her.

His eyes locked with hers, and some sort of roguish look in his eyes told Rapunzel that he was formulating a plan that would involve getting her wet.

Not exactly thrilled about the idea she sensed Eugene was getting, Rapunzel took a step backwards. Eugene grinned at her and took a step towards her, as if he were challenging her.

Rapunzel whirled around and ran away in the other direction, and the same second she did, Eugene followed after her.

"Catch me if you can!" She called back, laughing.

But it didn't take long for him to catch up with her, even though she was a fast runner, and when he did, he threw his arms around her and tackled her to the ground.

"I've got you now, fair Princess!" Eugene declared.

He decided that while he had her pinned down like this, he might as well figure out if she was ticklish.

"Eugene!" she squealed through her laughter, squirming and kicking her legs in protest. But Eugene kept a strong grip on her and kept tickling her.

"Eugene, stop! It tickles!" she cried, rolling from side to side in the sand to try and avoid his tickling hands.

Eugene scooped her up in his arms and ran into the ocean with her. He dipped her down into the water and then slung her over his shoulder. She pounded on his back and tried to splash water up on him with her feet.

When they reached the shore, Eugene set Rapunzel down in the sand and put his hands up in defeat.

"Okay, okay, I surrender. You probably don't want to be sopping wet when you meet your parents." He said.

"Like I'm not already sopping wet."

Eugene just grinned.

"Oh well," he said, reaching out his hand to help her up, "It won't matter if you're sopping wet. You're beautiful anyway." He kissed her forehead and Rapunzel just smirked.

They walked over to the bridge and Eugene laughed as Rapunzel ran ahead of him, grabbing one of his wanted posters. Sheesh, how did they get those things up so fast?

And, of course, they still couldn't get his nose right.

"Whatcha doin', Blondie?" He asked.

"Well, you're not going to be wanted anymore, so I'm doing them a favor and taking down these wanted posters for them. And I'm going to correct your nose and draw a picture on the back of all of them." Rapunzel answered, looking at the paper in her hands proudly.

"That is one ambitious task you're taking upon yourself, Blondie." He told her, though she'd proved to him yesterday that she could get his nose right.

Rapunzel grabbed his hand and pulled him along up the bridge with her.

"Come on, you." She said.

Much to Rapunzel's delight, she saw many of the children that she'd seen yesterday in the village.

"Rapunzel!" they cried, running towards her and gathering around her.

"What happened to your hair?" One little red-haired girl asked as she pointed at Rapunzel's hair. Eugene thought he recognized her as one of the girls who braided Rapunzel's hair yesterday.

"Oh, it's a wonderful story! Would you all like to hear it?" she asked.

The children eagerly nodded their heads.

"Okay, let's go over to that little fountain over there, and I'll tell it to you." Rapunzel motioned to a fountain not far away.

They all bounded towards it, Eugene bringing up the rear, making sure he kept Maximus with them as he looked around suspiciously for guards.

When they got to the fountain, the children sat in front of it and Rapunzel sat on the fountain's edge, patting the spot beside her for Eugene to sit on.

The children looked up at the two intently with wide eyes, not knowing that the story they were about to hear was the one about how the Lost Princess returned, or that the Lost Princess was sitting right in front of them.

"Now," Rapunzel began, "You all remember the story I told you yesterday about how my whole life, I've been dreaming to see those lanterns, and then how Eugene here came and agreed to take me to see them, and that whole part of the adventure, right?"

The children nodded vigorously and one spoke up.

"And how you told us that you thought you really liked him?"

Rapunzel blushed and glanced at Eugene, who was wearing a grin.

"Um, yes, right. Well, last night, I finally got to see the lights!" Rapunzel said enthusiastically, steering away from the topic that was just brought up.

The kids smiled and some cheered.

"Well, I saw them, and it was wonderful. But then, just as they were ending…" Rapunzel started.

Eugene watched her tell the story and didn't hear the words she was saying. His eyes were locked on her, and he thought about how much he admired her, how much he loved her.

He watched her with the children, and how good she was with them. Their eyes grew bigger by the second and filled with wonder and excitement. It was clear she had and could enchant and captivate them with something as simple as a story. Well, really, she could do that to anyone.

Including himself.

Without any warning, an image flashed through Eugene's eyes. He and Rapunzel were playing with children – their children, he was pretty sure. Rapunzel was a stupendous mother, and – was that another one on the way that was making her stomach swell up like that?

Eugene blinked back to reality. Woah, he thought, where did that come from? He was just sitting here, listening to Rapunzel, the girl he met two days ago, telling a story to some village children, and then in the same minute, he started imagining things about them being married and having kids.

Kids.

Lots of them.

Sure, he knew he loved Rapunzel, he'd told her he never wanted or planned on leaving her again, and it was true; but was it really possible? He was afraid he wasn't even going to get her home. But marriage and children? He would love that, but the chances of them getting to the castle without being caught and killed, getting the Royals to believe that Rapunzel was the Lost Princess, that the Royals would accept him and not get him hanged, that the Royals would let him marry her and have a whole big family with her?

Not likely. Even though he wished with every fiber of his being that it was.

He broke away from his thoughts and listened to Rapunzel again.

"…And then, you'll never guess what I realized." She was saying.

The children leaned forward anxiously and glued their eyes on Rapunzel.

"I'm the Lost Princess!" she said, and immediately the children smiled and giggled and cheered. Some even got up and gave Rapunzel and Eugene big hugs and sat on their laps.

"So that means that that old lady wasn't my mother. And she didn't want me to know that I was the Lost Princess or go back to my family, because that meant she couldn't stay young forever anymore. So she chained me up and told me we were leaving. Now, Eugene, here, got arrested and put in jail and was about to be hanged this morning. But those nice men from the Snuggly Duckling came and got him out, and he came to save me!"

The kids cheered, thinking the story was over.

"But wait!" Rapunzel interrupted. "There's more! When Eugene came to save me, that old lady stabbed him."

Gasps of horror were heard, confused eyes turned to Eugene, and arms tightened around him.

"And she was going to just leave him there. But I didn't want to. I couldn't. So I told her that if she let me heal him, I would go with her and not run away, and she agreed. I ran over to him and was about to heal him, when he grabbed a something sharp from the ground and cut my hair with it. And just like that, all my hair turned brown, that woman grew very old and fell out the window, and I didn't have the power to heal Eugene anymore. So, he died." Rapunzel said, barely above a whisper.

She raised her finger to her eye to wipe away a tear that was starting to form. A little girl who Rapunzel had met yesterday, Ellie, and who was currently sitting on Rapunzel's lap gave her a sympathetic, yet encouraging look. Rapunzel smiled warmly at her.

"So, I did the only thing I knew to do. I sang the magical song that used to make my hair glow. And I cried. And it just so happened that one of my tears landed on him, and apparently they were magical, too, just like my hair was, because this beautiful gold light filled the room, and he woke up." Rapunzel smiled at the memory of Eugene waking up.

"So now," she said, "We're on our way to the castle to meet my parents!"

The children cheered and everyone hugged the two again.

Eugene was so caught up in his thoughts, watching Rapunzel, listening to the story, watching the kid's reactions, and now hugging them, that he didn't notice a few large, disguised ruffians sitting on the other side of the fountain, trying to look casual, making it impossible for anyone to see the pair behind them.

oOo

"Watcha doin, Rapunzel?" Ellie asked Rapunzel as she came up behind her and observed her.

"I'm drawing pictures on the back of these posters. See? This one is of me in my tower. This one is of when we sang at the Snuggly Duckling about our dreams. And I'm gonna draw a whole bunch more." Rapunzel explained.

"Can I help?" the girl asked eagerly.

"Sure!" Rapunzel replied.

And before she knew it, Eugene and all the children were helping her. After each picture was completed, she eagerly showed and explained them to everyone.

Many of the pictures featured she and Eugene's adventures the last few days. Some were of Rapunzel simply running free through a field, or watching the lights from her windows, or doing some of the activities she used to do in her tower to keep busy.

A large man with some sort of turban with a few holes in it wrapped around his face, holding a bucket of chalk walked up to the group, standing directly in front of where Eugene and Rapunzel were sitting.

"Does this chalk belong here?" he asked in an extremely low voice.

"Oh, yes, thank you for finding it!" Rapunzel replied cheerfully, taking the bucket of chalk from the man and setting it on the ground.

Eugene glanced behind the man to try and figure out where he came from, but thought better of it when he saw some guards passing.

As the guards marched out of sight, the man turned around to walk back to wherever he came from, and Eugene noticed a cupcake tattoo on the man's arm.

Rapunzel sat back and sighed as she looked at her drawings.

"I think I want to take a break." She decided.

"You wanna go for a walk?" Eugene suggested.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, jumping up and grabbing his hand. "Let's go!"

They walked hand in hand through the streets, taking in the warm sun and the buzz going on around them.

"Hey Eugene? How old are you?" Rapunzel asked, tilting her head and looking at him as if she was trying to analyze his age.

"Twenty-one." He answered. "So that mean's I'm three years older than you."

"I know that. I could've figured it out." Rapunzel told him.

"I know. I just wanted to point out the fact that I'm older than you." He smiled, tapping her nose with his finger.

She wrinkled up her nose in a way that Eugene thought was adorable and swatted his arm.

Eugene pointed to a building to his left and said, "There's the orphanage I grew up in."

"Really?" Rapunzel asked excitedly, eager to hear about Eugene's childhood.

"Yep. Since I was five." He answered.

"Can we go in there and play with the kids?" Rapunzel asked hopefully.

"We probably don't have time today. Once you get in there, they never want you to leave." He said, recalling the times he'd been in there recently.

"Okay. Well, we'll have to come some other time, then." She decided.

They walked farther, twisting and turning through the maze of shops, houses, and villagers.

"Is it just me, or has that guy been creepily following us this whole time?" Eugene asked, pointing at a man looking around apprehensively.

The man was rather large and was wearing a brown, beat-up outfit with long, loose sleeves that came past his hands, so that you couldn't see them. He had a reddish-brown strange sort of mustache that outlined the corners of his mouth, and his off-white colored hair hung down to his chin in some sort of ringlets or twists. Actually, to think about it, it greatly resembled a mop.

Rapunzel giggled.

"I think he has. What do you think he's doing?"

"I don't know. What I want to know is why he's wearing a mop on his head." Eugene stated.

"Do you think that really is a mop?" Rapunzel asked.

"It sure looks like it. I mean, honestly, who has that kind of hair?" Eugene reasoned.

"That guy, apparently." She answered. "But, I mean – "

Unexpectedly, Eugene swiftly pulled her into an alley and took her into his arms, kissing her deeply.

When they broke apart, Rapunzel gave him a curious look and he laughed.

"Guards." He answered.

"Ah," Rapunzel replied, "So I'm kind of like your get out of jail free card?"

"Yep. You know, climb up a girl's tower, get hit in the head with a frying pan so many times you can't remember ("It was three, Eugene." "Nuance."), take her to see the lights and almost get killed several times in the process, then actually get killed for real, come back to life, and take home said girl, who realized she's the Lost Princess, just so I can pull you into an alley and kiss you so the guards won't see me, put me and jail and hang me." Eugene answered teasingly.

"Mhmm. Sounds like a stupendous, Flynn Rider plan." Rapunzel agreed.

"Shh. Don't say the word Flynn Rider. It attracts attention." He warned her, looking around.

Rapunzel giggled. "Sorry. And that's two words."

"Getting a little smart, are we?" Eugene teased, leading her out of the alley.

"I always was smart, Eugene Fitzherbert."

"Possibly true, Blondie. I was probably just too busy dealing with my superhuman good looks or my concussion, thanks to your frying pan, to notice." Eugene considered.

"It was not a concussion, Eugene!"

"Was too. I've got bruises to prove it."

"That doesn't mean anything. But then again, that pretty much was my desired goal; I just didn't quite know it at the time. Further proving that I always was smart."

"Oh, so you wanted to kill me with your frying pan?"

Rapunzel yanked Eugene behind the building they were next to and embraced his lips with hers.

"Guards." She explained when they broke apart, eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Of course, Blondie." He said with a knowing look.

Rapunzel started to hear sweet, melodious music filling the air, so she grabbed Eugene's hand and followed it to one of the town squares.

"C'mon, Eugene, let's dance!" she said to Eugene, tugging on his arm.

"But we already dance today – " Eugene protested.

"Night!" Rapunzel corrected.

"Whatever! Night, and you saw how bad I was."

"What was bad about it?" Rapunzel questioned, tilting her head in confusion.

"Only the fact that we fell down twice in the span of five minutes."

Rapunzel shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh well." She said as Eugene allowed himself to be pulled in. They joined the end of the line of dancers.

As they danced, they saw a couple of thugs fighting loudly in front of some guards who looked like they were trying to look past the men get a look at the dancers.

"Uh-oh. Guards. On my right." Eugene murmured to Rapunzel, nodding his head in their direction.

Rapunzel discreetly peeked at the guards and then turned her attention back to Eugene to give him a surprised and questioning look.

"Looks like we're gonna have to switch up the dance a little, Blondie."

He took hold of her hand, ducked down low, and led her down the middle of the rows of dancers. Soon, the other dancers caught on to the dance change and began doing the appropriate dance.

After moving all the way down the whole row, they ended up at the other end, as far away from the guards as they could and still be in the dance.

But after Rapunzel and Eugene's spontaneous move, everyone else seemed to want to do the same, because within a few minutes everyone was dancing around in the square, altogether in one big, unrelated dance.

oOo

Rapunzel flitted around the village for hours with Eugene right by her side, doing more dancing, taking down and drawing on the Flynn Rider wanted posters (it seemed that they just kept appearing), playing with the children, and exploring until the sun was about to set.

"Rapunzel," Eugene said, catching her elbow as she almost flew by him. "You about ready to head to the castle?"

Somehow, some way that Eugene didn't understand, guards hadn't caught them this whole day. In fact, he'd seen more large, badly disguised men who looked like they could regulars at the Snuggly Duckling than he had guards. Which was strange, because most of them never came into the city. But anyway, he didn't want to press his luck more than he already had, and they needed to get to the castle soon. The only thing about that was that he and Rapunzel couldn't get into the castle without facing guards.

Eugene was still working on that one.

Rapunzel nodded her head.

"Yeah, I guess I'm ready. I want to say bye to the children, and then we can go." Rapunzel agreed.

She called all the children together and told them goodbye as a group, then hugged and personally told each one goodbye.

As she did so, Eugene couldn't help but remember the image in his head that had appeared this afternoon. She loved kids, and they loved her. She'd be an amazing mother.

Eugene shook his head, trying to shake off his thoughts. What was up with him today?

A/N: How was it? REEEEEVIIEEEEW and tell me! Constructive criticism is welcome! I only skimmed through it before I posted it, so there might be some mistakes you'll have to excuse. Oh, also! I know I said that Eugene is 21, and his official age is 26. Well, I think that's too far of an age gap, so in my mind, he's 21 when he meets Punzie.
Anywho, review!