Here's the next chapter: And PuttingQuillOnParchment: Your reviews mean so much! They're so encouraging! Thanks! :D
"Mommy, read me this one," Lilly requested, as she stood at her mother's feet in the library. She had taken to calling her 'mommy' instead of her usual 'mama' because she liked the sound of it better. Rapunzel had to admit, she preferred 'mommy' to 'mama'.
"What it is?" the Princess asked, pulling her girl up onto her lap, and taking the hardcover book from her hand.
"Don't you like Flynnigan Rider anymore?" Rapunzel asked.
"Yes, I do!" Lilly insisted. "But I want something different today." She snuggled into her mother's hold, leaning her head against her shoulder, as Rapunzel's gentle voice read the words aloud. She closed her eyes, listening to the soft drone of her mother's voice, and before she knew it, she was asleep, and Rapunzel was carrying her to her bedroom, tucking her into bed, and softly kissing her forehead.
Of course, Lilly want to keep her promise of going to the tower everyday to sing to Gothel – or Grandmother, as she referred her to. However, neither accounted for illness, and Lilly was tucked up in bed for almost a week, with sniffling nose, and sore throat.
"Mommy," she said softly, as her mother felt her forehead for a fever. Rapunzel had been reading her to.
"What is it, baby?" Rapunzel asked softly.
"Can I go to the forest with Daddy tomorrow?"
"No baby," Rapunzel answered. "You're sick, and I don't want you getting sicker. You will stay in bed until you're all better."
"But, Mommy!"
"Lillian," Rapunzel said, not quite harshly, but with enough warning in her voice for Lillian to know not to argue. "I'll get the chef to make you something special for breakfast tomorrow, instead."
"Okay," Lilly nodded, closing her tired eyes. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Rapunzel kissed her hot forehead, and left the room, closing the door behind her.
When Lilly got back to the tower a week later, she found Gothel, looking old and angry.
"Hi," she said timidly, knowing Gothel wouldn't be too happy.
"Why didn't you come?" she asked coldly, staring down at the girl.
"I got sick, and-"
"Why didn't you use your hair to heal you?"
"I- you… told me not to use it on anyone but you, and, if I did use it to make me better, it wouldn't have been a secret anymore, because Mommy or Nanna were always next to me." Gothel sighed, slumping in a chair, knowing the little girl was right. She had no fault in then matter, but Gothel wasn't ready to be proven wrong, plus, old age always made her grumpy.
"Well maybe you should have thought that you getting sick is an exception!" she snapped, making Lilly flinch.
"But you said-"
"I know what I said, Lillian, but don you ever use those little brains you have?" She growled in annoyance. "You're too much like your mother; sloppy, underdressed, immature, clumsy, gullible, naïve. Positively grubby! Honestly, I don't understand how you couldn't have thought of asking your mother to leave the room, and make yourself better!" Lilly bit her lip, trying not to cry as this normally gentle woman lashed out at her with insults; most of which she didn't understand anyway. Then Gothel slumped herself in her chair once more, and picked up the brush.
"Well don't just stand there, Lilly, come sing!" she demanded. Lilly went timidly towards her, standing in front of the chair, with her back to her. Gothel tugged the brush through her hair roughly, as Lilly sang quietly.
"Flower, gleam and glow. Let your power shine…"
When the song was finished, and Gothel was young again, Lilly wasted no time in trying to get out of their. But Gothel locked the trapdoor that led to the stairs, and threw the key into the fireplace, where is melted.
"I can't trust you to come back anymore," she hissed. "You're not leaving this tower."
"What?!" Lilly cried, unable to believe her ears. "Why?"
"Because I need you to stay young forever," Gothel replied.
"But you won't," Lilly reminded her "My hair will run out of power. You said yourself it was only tempor-… temporar-… Tempor-canary!"
"Temporary, dear, and you're right; I did," Gothel looked thoughtful. "Well, when it runs out I'll have no need for you."
"Then I can go home?" Lilly asked hopefully.
"No." Lilly's face fell. "And you can't expect me to keep you for the rest of my life, either."
"But… what about my parents?" Lilly asked anxiously, tears in her eyes.
"Who cares?" Gothel asked. "Rapunzel was a nuisance, and that rogue father of yours was the reason I had no eternal youth for eight years! I raised your mother for eighteen years; they don't call me Mother Gothel for nothing!" Lilly bit her lip, but stayed where she stood, unsure of what to do. She looked desperately around the room, and her eyes rested on Rose. She ran to the doll, scooped her up, and sat in the corner hugging her tightly for the rest of the day. What would her father think when she doesn't come? What will her mother say when Dad tells her she's gone? Will they send out a search party? Or will they hunt the woods themselves? Lilly's mind was racing, and all she wanted was to curl up on her mother's lap listening to Flynnigan Rider's adventures.
"Gothel," she said quietly after a few hours.
"I told you to call me Grandmother," Gothel snapped.
"I won't," Lilly said definitely. "But, why do you want to live and be young forever?"
"Who doesn't?"
"I wouldn't," Lilly said. "I wouldn't want to carry on living and see all the people I care for and love die, while I lived forever." Gothel's face twitched, as she stared hard and cold at the little girl curled up in a corner, before letting out a short growl, and turning away.
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