Author's Note: So…hi everybody! This is my first Tangled fanfic, and I'm excited to be writing one at last. I mean, I've wanted to, but I've never had good ideas. But I think I might be on the verge of one. So any extra ideas from the viewers will be GREATLY appreciated. If you could, that would be awesome, and I'd be SO grateful to you. Please comment! I really need encouragement on this story so any reviews will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
RAPUNZEL
"And—and I told him, Rapunzel! But I didn't mean to, darling! Because I was drinking, drinking, drinking. Drowning in my drink. And he—that idiot bast—"
"Mother," warned Rapunzel, holding a cup of tea towards Gothel. "It's gonna be okay."
Gothel put her head down on the table, wary. "Oh, please, Rapunzel. I've put our life in jeopardy."
"Drink," Rapunzel ordered.
Gothel accepted the hot tea. "Oh, dear," she said to Rapunzel, smoothing her hair. "What would I do without you?"
Rapunzel smiled proudly, sitting down on a nearby chair. "So—Mother! What exactly did you say you told the old man at the tavern?"
"Oh!" Gothel sprung back up again, spilling half the tea over her embroidered crimson red skirt.
Rapunzel put her head in her hands.
"I told that man about you. About your beautiful long hair. Where we live. Our location."
"What's wrong with that?"
"Are you such an idiot, dear?" Gothel exclaimed, clinking the cup down hard. "Our location is meant to be a secret, darling, so no outsiders will get in. You know how they are, Rapunzel. I've told you about them. About the tortures they do to angelic little girls like you."
"Mother, I'm eighteen," Rapunzel insisted. "I'm not afraid!"
Gothel sighed. "Yes, Rapunzel, but I've seen the barbarians in action and I'm afraid for you. Tell me, dear. Tell me what they will do to you. The ruffians and thugs."
Rapunzel's eyes widened. "Take my innocence away."
Gothel nodded. "You can get a lot of stolen items back. Books, hairbrushes, gowns. But not your innocence. Not your little-girl mind, not your heart."
Rapunzel clutched her chest. "They'd take my heart?"
Gothel didn't reply, just stood up, as if she'd made a point. "And that old man could be dangerous Rapunzel! Half of the people in that tavern were murderers! And thieves! And…bad people, that's who!"
Rapunzel raised her thin blonde eyebrows. "Why were you in there, Mother?"
Gothel blushed for a brief moment. But she brushed it off like she did most of Rapunzel's comments and stood up, wiping off her skirt. "Oh, yuck," she sighed. "Stained with tea. Brilliant, aren't I? Rapunzel, be a dear and please fetch me another gown from my closet."
Rapunzel stood and went. Servant girl or daughter? She wasn't sure herself.
"Rapunzel, dear!" Gothel yelled from the front room. "I'm going into town to see a friend. Ask her if she's heard any news of that old man."
Rapunzel appeared in the doorway. "Okay, Mother."
"I'll be back tomorrow afternoon, I promise!" Gothel said tenderly, kissing Rapunzel on the forehead. "Go to sleep right after dinner, okay?"
"Of course, Mother."
Gothel beamed. "There's a good girl!"
Rapunzel let her hair down for Gothel to climb. There was that brief pulling, and the pain that started at her scalp, but she had gotten used to it.
"See you tomorrow!" Gothel called up. "Stay in the tower!"
She had vanished into the bushes. Rapunzel looked at the fading light of the sky and began slowly reeling her long 40 feet of blonde hair back into the tower.
"Do I have a choice?"
LATER
The stars were shining above. Rapunzel sat on her little shelf high up at the almost top of the tower and squinted out of a round window, a brush and a box of paints in her hands.
Something nudged her leg. Underneath her skirts, a little green chameleon was sitting, looking annoyed.
"Pascal, come look at this!" Rapunzel commanded. "Look at all the stars! I'm trying to find the North Star so I can paint it on my wall mural. Help me out here."
Pascal climbed onto the sloping windowsill and jabbed his little green hand at the North Star. It was shining brightly, and Rapunzel smiled, her eyes reflecting it.
With a gasp of delight, she dipped her brush in white and painted the North Star.
Every inch of her walls were practically covered in paintings. The proof of my boredom, Rapunzel referred to them as.
At least, that's what she'd call them if she ever gave a friend a tour of her tower. But she had no friends, besides Pascal.
"What do you want to do?" Rapunzel asked Pascal, swinging the window shut, closing her box of paints and swinging her legs off the shelf.
Pascal pointed out the big window.
Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "No."
Pascal arched his thick green eyebrows, as if asking why.
"My innocence, that's why!" Rapunzel exclaimed. "Don't you listen to anything Mother says?"
Rapunzel swung off the ledge, her hair carrying her. She let her bare feet touch the ground and turned back to Pascal, nestled on her shoulder.
"Let's bounce on the bed!" Rapunzel suggested.
Pascal shook his head.
"Let's…read a book!"
Pascal shook his head.
Rapunzel stuck out her lower lip. "Oookay. Let's…play hide and seek!"
Pascal shook his head rapidly, shrinking back into Rapunzel's dress, turning light violet, the shade of her gown.
Rapunzel laughed. "Alright, Pascal. Let's paint."
Pascal looked questioningly at the walls. Another no.
Rapunzel sighed. "I don't know. I'm at a loss for ideas."
Pascal smiled. He skittered under Rapunzels' bed and came out dragging a piece of paper in his mouth. Gesturing with his hands, he began to talk to Rapunzel in a series of odd grunting noises.
Rapunzel nodded. "Uh-huh."
Pascal kept talking.
Rapunzel nodded. "That sounds cool. Let's try!"
Rapunzel tore the piece of paper in half and picked up a brush. "Okay, Pascal," she said to the stubborn chameleon. "Let's go through the plan again. I write yes on one side and no on the other side?"
Pascal nodded.
"Then I crumple it up, mix it up in a bag, and draw one out, and if I get yes we leave the tower."
Pascal waved his hands.
Rapunzel continued. "And if I get no, we stay."
Pascal nodded again.
Rapunzel bit her lip. "Let's try it. But what if we get yes, Pascal? We're really taking a risk here."
Pascal shrugged, waving his hands. Get on with it.
Rapunzel wrote YES and NO really big and then crumpled up the paper.
She pulled an old cowgirl hat of hers off from the peg above her bed, and mixed up the two pieces of paper inside it. She shut her eyes tight and put her fingers inside.
Pascal climbed onto her head, leaning over.
Rapunzel opened one green eye slightly.
Pascal slid down her face and closed it with his slimy hand.
Rapunzel sighed. "Okay, okay!" She shut her eyes tightly and pulled out a crumpled ball of paper. Carefully, she unwrapped it, setting Pascal on the ground.
Her eyes scanned the paper and then let out a breath of relief. "Hah!" she said to Pascal.
Pascal raised an eyebrow warily.
"No," said Rapunzel.
Pascal raised his other eyebrow and gestured.
Rapunzel hid the paper behind her back. "What? You think I'm lying?"
Pascal nodded.
Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "Pff. That's stupid. Why would I lie?"
Pascal's eyes were wide. Because you're scared.
Rapunzel looked down at her lap, and shoved the paper at him. "I lied. It was yes."
Pascal grinned and jerked his head towards the window. Rapunzel stood, put Pascal on her shoulder and walked towards the window. "I don't want to, Pascal," she whispered.
Pascal looked seriously at her and began to talk.
Look, Rapunzel. The world out there might seem big and bad to you, but not all people are. I mean, obviously. Gothel isn't—and she's from Outside.
"Mother makes me feel like the whole world is one big tavern of murderers," Rapunzel whispered, shaking.
Would you calm down? Let's have a trial. We go out, see if the world's bad. If it is, we come back here. If not, we stay.
"Like, forever?" Rapunzel whispered.
Pascal rolled his eyes dismissively. Of course not. For a little longer.
"But Mother will be back tomorrow afternoon."
We'll beat her back here.
"Really?" Rapunzel asked doubtfully.
I promise, said Pascal earnestly.
Rapunzel sighed. "I'm a bird in a tower that wants to be free," she told Pascal. "I'm a timid little sparrow, living in her tree."
You can choose to be a sparrow, Pascal said seriously. Or you can be a phoenix, rising from the flames to start a new life.
"Don't preach," Rapunzel sighed. "I'm just a sparrow. But do you think I'll ever be a phoenix?"
If you wanted to be, you could.
Rapunzel took a deep breath and looked down at the ground.
Ready? Pascal asked.
Rapunzel nodded. "On the count of three."
You start.
Rapunzel swung her hair through the hook at the top, preparing for the immense breathtaking fall. "One."
Two.
"Oooh, Pascal!" squealed Rapunzel. "I can't do this!" She stared down at the ground and then at Pascal's impatient face. Two, he repeated.
Rapunzel closed her eyes. "Three."
FLYNN
Flynn was totally lost.
He had no idea how to start the mission, where to begin the search for Gray's mystery girl.
He sat on the stone edge of a fountain. He looked up at it. A naked stone mermaid and a naked stone merman, hugging, their tails entwining.
Love.
Flynn rolled his eyes. He had no need for love right now. What he wanted to have right now was money. A middle-aged woman with curly black hair and pale skin sat down next to him with her blonde haired townswoman friend.
"I can't believe I told that simpering old man about her," the black haired woman was saying.
"There, there, Gothel," said the blonde lady.
Flynn perked up. Gothel? Gray had mentioned that name. The girl's mother was Gothel. Gothel must live with the girl. The magic girl.
Flynn grinned.
He began to listen to their conversation.
"So what now?" Gothel asked hopelessly.
"If the old man finds out," the blonde woman was saying. "The girl's magic powers might belong to him. And you know what would happen to you?"
Gothel was silent.
"You'd be—"
"Don't!" hissed Gothel behind him. Flynn didn't dare turn. "Forget that, Kathleen," said Gothel calmly from behind him. "I'll find a secret location for us when I return to the tower tomorrow."
"No one else must know about the magic qualities of her hair." Said Kathleen.
"Right." Said Gothel. "Now. About an inn."
"There's an inn nearby," announced Kathleen. "We can stay there. And in the morning, we can split. I will return to the town to search for the old man you described. You'll return to the tower to tell the girl of your plans."
Gothel nodded.
Both stood and left.
Flynn grinned. This was too easy.
LATER
At Monarch Inn, Gothel and Kathleen paid for separate rooms, and Flynn paid for one near theirs not long after they had checked in.
With his last couple of coins he bought a room and went in.
It was plain, with wood flooring, creaky doors, a knotty pine dresser, and the whole room smelled like the kingdom's chief export: maple syrup.
Flynn laid down on the bed and decided to take a well-deserved rest.
After all, he hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in a long time.
Maybe tomorrow, he'd be a rich man.