A/N: This was written on a random whim a couple years ago, and this is not according to my update order, but…
I got bloodwork done that I'd been begging for since I was 12, and ultimately found out something most unexpected. Between that turning my world upside down, and my husband worrying about me "questioning my identity," when really all I'm worried about is the paperwork- and the medication side effects- and my family finding out…
Anyway, this seemed most appropriate to pull up out of the drawer!
Ya Know What I Mean?
Rapunzel moped down the dark stone hall, alone. I expected to feel more fulfilled at the end of this journey; not more empty… She sighed, and brushed that loose bit of hair back into her thick braid, not even aware of how doing that simply action herself only further saddened her melancholy.
She idly turned down a side hall, almost too lost studying the patterns in the tile to notice another pair of footsteps come to a halt. When she looked up, and her heart sank into her empty stomach again. She froze in her tracks as well.
Eugene stood in the middle of the hallway, rigid with apprehension. He was decked out in an old, old outfit of his father's that was from when the man was much younger and leaner himself. It was somehow still princely, yet plain at the same time. His mother's purple pendant necklace hung around his neck, and a bearskin cape covered his shoulders. On his slim form, it made him look much larger than he was, which she currently found oddly intimidating. His black crown he carried in his hand.
Both could hardly breathe at the sight of each other, while their hearts raced.
"Uh, I'm sorry, Euge- um…" she trailed off as she looked away. She began to turn around. "I mean, Your Ro-"
"Blondie wait," he blurted out, desperate and nervous. "Please, don't-" he held a hand out, "Don't go. Not-" he gulped, "At least not just yet."
She faced him again and tried to smile.
"Just stay there, please," he urged, terrified she might flee in the time it took him to walk the last bit of this hallway.
She nodded.
He took a deep breath and started carefully walking towards her, still expecting her to bolt from him at the slightest wrong word. He stopped at an arm's length from her. "Hey," he flashed a bright smile before it retreated.
"Hey," she kept her sad and forced smile up.
"I have been looking everywhere for you," he gasped. "Where were you headed?"
"Oh, ah- nowhere… I was just, wandering around..." Aimlessly, she scolded herself. "Why were you looking for me?"
Eugene blinked hard at her. "'Why was I-?'" He shook his head. "Rapunzel, listen, please- I am so sorry I tried to keep you out this morning, but I thought it was for your own good at the time, although now I see he's clearly just crazy and didn't entirely know what he was talking about, and just got me paranoid - but for your LIFE! So can ya really blame me? I'm sorry, though. I should have stood up for you sooner-"
He noticed her shaking her head.
"And I'm sorry about Cass. Sweetie, I had no idea. But-"
She was still shaking her head.
"What? What is it then?"
"That's not it."
"Then… What?" He followed her line of sight to the black crown he held. "This?" He held it up.
Her frown deepened. "You're the only heir, and we are a long, looong way from Corona, and your dad said-"
Eugene had rolled his eyes as soon as she opened her mouth, then interrupted. "Forget what he said."
"But he-"
"He's not my dad."
Rapunzel blinked, aghast.
Eugene sighed. "I mean, I guess I got fifty-percent of my genes from him, but he- I don't know him," he shrugged, "I only listened this morning 'cause he got me scared for you, Sunshine."
She raised one brow while scrunching the other. "Ya know, I didn't know my parents, either, when we went back to Corona."
"You were kidnapped," he snapped with annoyance. "This ol' man sent me away, clearly with some of the most incompetent people ever. Just so he could sit here, alone, for eternity, and feel guilty, but still not DO anything about it."
Rapunzel ceded the stark contrast with a nod, but looked away.
"Anyway…" He calmed down and re-examined her body language. Not good. Tentatively, he asked, "Blondie… What do you think is going to happen here?"
She rubbed her arm, still looking away to a far off spot. "I don't know," she choked out.
He watched her fidget. "Well, whatever happens, I'm with you."
Her eyes darted to his.
He startled to lock eyes with her. "I know you have the magic of the Sundrop." He reached out to take her hand, "And I have faith in you. Everything's gonna be okay." A warm smile bloomed on his lips, just for her. "Okay?"
She blushed, but still looked sad. "I'm not as worried about that part anymore."
His brow pinched harder. "Then what?"
Tears appeared on the brim of her lids, though she smiled as she cupped his cheek. He watched her with increasing worry, but leaned into her palm, adding his atop hers. "Eugene," she cringed, "I can't keep you from where you belong."
He snapped back to attention, gripping her hand tighter. "I belong with you."
"But I can't stay here," she cried. "I have to go back to Corona."
"Bu… Buh-t…" he stuttered; his worries confirmed, but speechless nonetheless.
"Eugene, I am so glad you found your family, your home."
"YOU'RE my ride 'home!' To Corona! Rapunzel, pleeease," he squeezed her hands. "You are my family. If you wanna believe anything about this being fate or destiny, believe that we were always meant to be. If he hadn't sent me away, and you made it here on your own, we still would've met! Or maybe I would've left specifically in search of the Sundrop flower- story… thing… I still would've found you!"
Rapunzel's tears flowed over as she listened. "Stalyan made the same argument about running back into you…"
"The difference is we both want each other," he asserted, but then faltered. "I mean, right?"
"Yes, of course, but-" she sighed. "You convinced me to go back to Corona to meet my parents, talking about how they missed me, and my kingdom needed me- ugh, Eugene, don't you see?"
"I DO see. I see that my old man has completely lost his mind, confessed to sending me away, and my 'kingdom,' consists entirely of him and Adira, with nothing but these desolate black rocks-"
"And Quirin and Varian…"
"Who live in Corona now. All we need is for you to neutralize the Moonstone, then the sun can come out and we can leave. WE. You and I."
She looked away, thinking.
"WE leave this place. Together. Unless anything I've done has truly upset you so badly, that I've actually lost your love-"
At that, her alarmed attention darted up to him.
"-because otherwise, you know that I am not ever going to leave your side." He let that settle, ruthlessly comparing himself to their specific friend's actions.
They stared at each other for a while, at an impasse.
"I- I do love you, Eugene, more than anything, you know that-"
"Then don't you abandon me, too! He at least thought he was keeping me safe from the stone. But just to stay away for the sake of- of what? Ruling over dust? This place is no 'Kingdom of the Sun' like Corona is."
She bit her lips together, nodding along with his pleas.
"You really wanna LEAVE ME here in this dump? There is nothing here, for anyone."
"But you are a Prince in your own right now. And I guess I just also thought that finding where you came from would have a bigger impact on you," she shrugged.
"Oh, it did," he recalled. "But I'm not gonna let anything distract me from my New Dream."
She smiled wide, though one piece of confusion remained. "But, then, so why are you dressed like that?"
He looked down at his outfit. "Oh, this is just for dinner. To shut him up about me staying."
"He wants you to stay?"
"Rapunzel," he whined, "I know who I am. None of this really matters. None of this changes anything.
"Sure, I found, practically all the pieces to the puzzle of my past. But my future? I already have a life, with you, in Corona. When Gothel died, I had nothing else to offer you but a life on the run. So we went back to your kingdom. If you weren't or we still didn't know you were a princess, I would've taken us somewhere else. But this? Here? This isn't the same."
"You don't even sound happy about finding out about your past."
"Because I'm not, really. I'm happy with you! I am beyond thrilled just to be your Prince Consort someday. Finding out I've apparently been a, a Lost Prince all this time, doesn't change any of that. Doesn't change who I am, or what I want. So, please, I am begging you, don't let this past be what drives you away…"
Rapunzel finally sniffled, took a few deep breaths, then heaved a great sigh.
"You fell in love with me as a criminal, but now that I'm a prince you wanna dump me?" he said humorously.
She burst out a giggle at long last, and shook her head.
"So are we okay now?" Eugene asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I think so," she chuckled.
"C'mere," he pulled her close into a hug, and kissed her temple. "I love you, and I'm not gonna leave you for all the kingdoms of the world." He released her again, only to take her face in his hands and gaze deep into her eyes. "You should know by now that a CROWN, can't come between us," he smirked. "Ya know what I mean?"
Rapunzel chuckled. "Yeah," she wiped a tear away, "Yeah I do now."
A/N: By the way, my husband? Sometimes he's Rapunzel. XD
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