Breathing out a sigh through his nose, Flynn watched the numbers above the elevator door leisurely count down. He needed to come up with a way out of this. Nothing against the blonde little nutjob, but he simply did not have the time to be babysitting her. He needed to get the crown, ditch the girl, and get the hell out of Dodge.

But how? She had already proved to be insusceptible to his charms, much as he loathed to admit it. And trying to scare her out of it seemed unlikely. The girl was fearless, if her little hair-bungee jump demonstration earlier had been any indication. He mulled over it for a few seconds. The mother seemed to be a touchy subject. Perhaps a guilt trip was in order… yeah, that might do the trick!

He glanced over at her. She was fiddling with a strap on her backpack and hanging her head. Perhaps she was already beginning to regret her decision? This might be simpler than he thought.

"...I did it..."

He perked his ears at the sound of her mumbling something. "What was that?" he asked.

"I can't believe I actually did it!" she whooped, pumping a fist in the air and her hair rustling around her as she bounced excitedly. "I left! I'm free! I-" Her face went slack with horror. "I am so dead!"

He raised a finger and opened his mouth to say something, but he didn't get a chance. She grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him down to her eye level.

"My mom is gonna kill me!" she insisted, her eyes panicked. Then the terror suddenly vanished and she released him with a soft laugh. "Nah, she won't kill me. Oh sure, she'll be mad, but it'll be worth it to finally be outside… to go to the festival!" She paused, then looked at him, her face unsure. "...right?"

"Uh…" was his eloquent response.

"Oh god, she's gonna straight up murder me," Rapunzel answered her own question as she raked her fingers through her scalp. Then she perked up again, eyes twinkling. "But helloooo, tomorrow will only be the best freaking day ever!" Her energy was short lived as she slumped against a wall and began to chew on a lock of her hair. "She'll murder me dead. With a rusty machete. Chop me up into little pieces and sell my organs on Ebay and use the profits to buy a better, more grateful, less despicable daughter."

Okay... this was getting a little dark.

On the plus side however, Flynn had just the opening he needed. He cleared his throat to get her attention. "Not to interrupt your, ah…"

"Gollum-Smeagol moment?" she suggested.

"...sure." Whatever that was. A clinical term, maybe? "But I don't think you have anything to worry about."

"I don't?" she asked in a small, hopeful voice.

He shook his head. "Nah, she'd never murder you. She loves you too much." He inspected his nails casually. "She'll probably just disown you."

Her eyes grew wide. "...d-disown me…?"

"Well yeah, what with the way you're ripping her heart out and stomping on it."

"Ripping her heart out?" she asked aghast.

Flynn nodded. "With a knife."

Rapunzel looked down. "...stomping on it?"

"Utterly pulverizing it, really," he said matter-of-factly. "You must really hate her."

"No! No, I don't hate her!" she cried, frantically shaking her head.

"You don't?" he asked, placing a hand on his chest in exaggerated shock, then tsked. "Oh dear. That's how she's going to see it. I mean, what's she supposed to think when you run away from home and abandon her?"

"That… oh no… she'll think that I hate her." Her hands clasped over her mouth. "...what have I done?"

He patted her on the shoulder. "There, there. Worry not, Blondie. It's not too late."

"It's not?"

This was too easy.

"Of course not! If we head back now, we can have you back safe and sound before your mom gets home and she'll be none the wiser. It'll be like it never happened." Turning towards the elevator console, he said, "Salvation is just the push of a button away." He reached a hand out to stop the elevator.

"Hold it," he heard Rapunzel snarl behind him and he froze. His head hesitantly turned to find she had raised her pan towards him threateningly. "Back away from the button. Slowly."

"But-"

"Back away," she repeated, narrowing her eyes, "or lose the finger." Both his hands snapped up in surrender and he did as he was told. "Nice try, bucko. I can see that I've met my match."

Rolling his eyes, he said, "Again with the tired movie clichés."

She ignored him. "But your diabolical mind games won't work on me, Flynn Rider."

"You know, you don't always have to say my full name. Just Flynn is fine."

"The fact of the matter is, if you want your precious purse-"

"Satchel," he corrected blandly.

"-whatever. If you want it back, you're stuck with me until after the festival." She glared up at him, her words brooking no argument. "Is that-"

A musical chime sounded overhead and the elevator came to an abrupt stop, making Rapunzel jump back with a tiny "meep!" The doors slid open and her hair spilled out onto the floor. Her eyes shifted about momentarily before she poked a head out, as cautious and uncertain as a mouse peeking from its hole. But then she gave a delighted gasp and bolted out of the elevator. Flynn quirked an eyebrow.

Well, she was certainly more easily distracted than a five-year old with ADHD.

He stepped out as well, making sure to first carefully disentangle his feet from the hair that was still piled in the lift before he took a look around. They had arrived at the bottom floor of the building - the lobby. It was large and decorated in dark, ruby reds and rich, gleaming golds. Many people were milling about the room, a fact that Rapunzel was taking full advantage of.

"Hello!" she chirped as she ran up to a well dressed older couple standing next to the reception desk. She gave them no chance to respond before she darted off to a man wearing an eyepatch relaxing on a couch in the lounge area as he read a newspaper. She startled him by grabbing his hand and vigorously shaking it, exclaiming, "Hi! Nice to meet you! Whatcha reading? What happened to your eye? Did it hurt? Your eyepatch is cool. I-"

Her eyes fell on a woman another sofa over and she gasped, running over to her. "Oh my gosh, that's gorgeous! How did you do that?" she asked, referring to the lady's elaborate braided bun. Her words jumbled together as she continued, "Did it take a long time? I bet it took a long time. Did you do it yourself? Did you have help? What did you use? How-"

"You'll have to excuse my friend," Flynn cut in, grabbing Rapunzel by the shoulders from behind. He flashed the woman a smooth grin, "Blondie here's just a little excited. She recently found out they make Candy Corn flavored Oreos."

The look of shock and awe on Rapunzel's face was almost comical. "Shut up! Do they really?"

"...heh… so excited that she forgot what she's so excited about! Kids, am I right?" He hastily pushed Rapunzel away from the lady and maneuvered her towards the exit, muttering, "Jeez, Blondie, what's the deal? You act like you've never been in public before."

"Well… I haven't."

He blinked.

Say what?

Before he realized it, she was off again, running towards the double doors leading outside. A doorman held one open for her as she ran by. She stopped long enough to give him a quick, but very appreciative, "Thank you so much!" before continuing on. He politely tipped his hat to her before looking down and gawking.

As Flynn followed Rapunzel outside, he could hear the doorman muttering, "So much… hair…" He came to a screeching stop next to the bewildered man, looking down to see the locks rushing by like a custard river.

Flynn laughed. "Uh… yeah, she's… growing it out." He looked from the hair to the doorman. Poor guy was going to be holding that door open for a while. Flynn bent down to pull a few yards of it through to try to speed the process along a bit. Then he looked back into the lobby and realized that Rapunzel's hair was still filing out of the elevator door all the way on the other side of the room. Screw it. He gave the doorman an apologetic look before turning to catch up with the girl.

She was nowhere to be seen, but her hair was another story. It trailed down the sidewalk to the right and disappeared around the corner. Well, at least he'd never have to be worried about losing her.

As he turned the corner, he found Rapunzel standing stock still, eyes wide with amazement. He walked up to stand beside her and looked around, trying to pinpoint what exactly she was so fascinated by. After a few seconds, he realized what it was: everything. It seemed that she found the city nightlife to be a thing of enchantment. From the streetlights overhead to the headlights of the car whizzing by on the road. From the colorfully dressed people walking around to the equally colorful murals painted on the walls. Not to mention all the sounds and scents that seemed to be overwhelming her - not that she appeared to mind in the slightest.

He looked on and furrowed his brow. Wait a minute… all kidding aside, had she seriously never been outside before?

He was pulled out of his thoughts by several sharp tugs at his sleeve. He looked down at her beaming face and she pointed at a group of homeless people. "Look, Flynn, look! Bums!" she chirped happily.

"...okay?"

Strange thing to get excited about.

He watched as someone began to approach the group of transients. Actually, this person looked kind of like Rapunzel. The similarities were uncanny really, right down to the freakishly long hair. Maybe that was just the trending hairstyle in Corona currently? That had to be it, because there was no way it was actually Rapunzel. The girl was naive, but she wouldn't go so far as to just go skipping on up to a pack of dirty and potentially dangerous vagrants. No no, he mused with a chuckle as he turned to look at her, she was obviously still here at his side, safe as a bug in a-

He did a double take.

The space beside him was empty.

His head whipped back around to discover that the person that bore a striking resemblance to Rapunzel was, in fact, Rapunzel. He smacked his forehead, then slowly dragged his hand down his face, eyes peeking out between his fingers to watch.

They were far enough away that he couldn't hear what was being said, but the body language was easy enough to read, especially hers. She greeted the drifters with bubbly enthusiasm that practically radiated off of her in waves. They eyed her curiously before one held a hand out to her, palm upraised. She stared down at it, frowning and shaking her head slowly. But then her face lit up like the sun and she flipped her backpack around so she could unzip one of its many pockets. Her hand rooted around inside it for a few seconds before pulling out a handful of several thin, plastic rectangles. She shoved them into his outstretched hand, beaming triumphantly at him as he and the rest of his group blinked at her gift. She then shouldered her bag once more, waved an energetic goodbye to them, which they just returned with wide eyed stares, before she jogged back towards Flynn.

"I'm sorry," Flynn said as she approached him, "but did you just hand those bums a stack of credit cards?"

"Yup!" she nodded firmly.

"...why?"

"Because I didn't have any munny."

He quirked an eyebrow. "So… to you, the next logical step was to give them all your credit cards."

She waved a dismissive hand. "Not all of them. I still have a ton more."

"Oh. Because that's so much better," he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You know they're going to buy stuff with those now, right?"

She tipped her head to one side. "Um… that's kinda the point?"

"I mean like, a lot of stuff. They'll max out all those cards."

"So?" she shrugged.

"Maybe no one's ever taught you how credit works. You're going to have to pay for everything they buy. That's not free munny, you know."

She clapped her hands to her cheeks and gasped, "No!"

Had she just sassed him?

"Relax," she snorted with a grin. She had. She had sassed him. "I have the cash to spare. Besides, they need it more than I do."

Flynn opened his mouth, but almost immediately snapped it shut again. He proceeded to narrow his eyes as he tried to think of an argument that didn't make him sound like an uncaring cad. It was difficult. Luckily, he was saved from having to come up with one as something behind him caught Rapunzel's interest, her eyes becoming huge and her jaw going slack. "Wow!" she breathed as she ran past him.

Now what?

"She so pretty! So… so glamorous!" she said, her voice overflowing with wonder.

He followed her gaze and he blinked. "Um… Blondie? That's… ah, how shall I put this? That's a… a working girl. A lady of the night." He squinted. "Also, I think she might be a he."

A crease formed between Rapunzel's eyebrows. "Does that make her any less beautiful?"

"...well, no, I guess not…"

"And you're telling me people pay her to…?" she trailed off and Flynn simply nodded in response. He expected her to blush at the notion, but instead she just looked thoughtful as her head tilted to the left. "Huh. Guess she must be really good at it then."

He arched an eyebrow at her. "How do you figure?"

"Think of it this way. Do people give you munny to sleep with them?"

"Um… no."

"And why do you think that is?" she pressed. "Perhaps the quality of your services isn't as good as hers. Maybe she could give you some tips."

"Hey!" he snapped. "Believe you me, that's- I- the quality of my goods in that department is top notch, thank you very much, and-"

"Puppy!" she whooped, attention drawn away once more as she ran off.

Dear lord, she was like a catnip-high kitten and the whole world was her laser light pointer.

...now there's an idea. Maybe if he got a laser pointer, he could use it to distract her and keep her under control. Where would one buy one of those, anyway?

Sighing, he looked at what she had identified as a puppy. He then looked at Rapunzel, who was currently dashing at high velocity towards a very busy street in order to cross it to get to the animal. Rolling his eyes, he glanced down at her hair as it zipped past him on the ground. Then he stepped on it.

"Youch!" she hissed as she came to a screeching halt at the curb, vehicles racing by mere inches in front her. Spinning around to face him, she scowled. "What was that for?"

He pointed a finger at the creature in question across the street. "First off, that's not a puppy, that's a raccoon. Second off, those shiny metallic things you see blurring by? Those are cars."

She crossed her arms and scoffed, "I know what cars are, Flynn."

He gave a wry chuckle. "I don't think ya do, because you were exactly zero-point-five seconds away from becoming roadkill. Come on, Blondie, I know you don't get out much, but haven't you ever heard of looking both ways?"

"They would have stopped."

"No," he deadpanned. "No, they wouldn't have."

With a harrumph, she turned to look at the animal once more. "...are you sure that's a raccoon?"

"It has a striped tail, a mask, and is rooting around in a trash can. I'm pretty sure."

She considered that in silence for a few seconds, then said, "Raccoons need love too."

"Sure, if you don't mind rabies."

With each passing breath, one thing was becoming abundantly clear to Flynn. As much as he wanted to leave, there was no way this girl could be left alone. Even if he got a chance to steal back the crown from her and split, he just wouldn't be able to bring himself to do it knowing that she was a walking catastrophe just waiting to happen. He just knew she would wind up taken advantage of, hurt, or dead if left to her own devices. He may have been a cad, but he was a cad with a stupid, pesky conscience.

That being said, he still couldn't just hang around town for another 48 hours. That was as good as strolling up to the next officer he saw and politely asking to be cuffed and tossed into a jail cell.

Somehow he needed to convince her to change her mind, abandon her mission and return home early. The question was how?

The answer came to him in the form of a monstrous growl from Rapunzel's stomach. He looked down at it, a sly smile slowly spreading across his face. He knew just what to do.

"Someone hungry?" he asked.

She had clasped a hand to her abdomen and replied sheepishly, "Maybe just a little."

His smile twitched slightly wider. "I know just the place. Good food, great atmosphere, live music, my treat."

She perked up a bit. "Really?"

"Yes, really. I mean, come on, what kind of guide would I be if I didn't show you all the local highlights and attractions?" He spun her around and slung an arm over her shoulder, leading her at a brisk pace down the sidewalk. "Let me tell you, Blondie, you're in for a real treat. Just a few blocks down and around the corner is a quaint, homey, fantastic little place known as The Snuggly Duckling."

She grinned. "Well, I do like ducklings."

"Yay!" he chirped.

The crown was as good as his.

Sora's search had turned up squat. Not the Keyhole, not the mysterious person wearing Riku's jacket, nothing. Well, nothing except for a few Heartless scattered here and there that he had made quick work of. It was all somewhat disappointing really. Maybe Elsa and Axel had had better luck.

Speaking of those two, he hoped they weren't thinking he had fallen prey to the Heartless, since it was now well past when he had agreed to meet up with them. He had simply lost track of the time. The starry night sky sparkled overhead as he sprinted through the city trying to get to the meeting spot as quickly as he could. The sidewalks were still packed with tourists and other pedestrians even though the sun had set long ago, so he zigzagged precariously around other people as he moved. So far, he had been lucky enough to avoid any head-on collisions.

His luck ran out when he took the next corner a little too quickly without looking.

"Oomph!" he grunted as he ran into someone, knocking himself flat on his rear. The woman he had collided with stood firm, an impressive feat given the glossy black, six-inch stilettos she was wearing.

She was tall and willowy. At her height, she could have given Axel a run for his munny. She was like a porcelain statue, flawless and pale. Her hair, dark as a moonless midnight, was done up into a tight, elegant bun and contrasted sharply with her ivory skin. In her black pencil skirt and jacket with a silk, royal purple blouse underneath, she looked ready to conduct a business meeting as some powerful CEO at a multimillion dollar corporation. Her face was narrow and angular and ageless. Violet eyeshadow was lightly dusted over her onyx eyes and her lips were painted a deep rose red. She was beauty, grace and sophistication personified.

Sora was speechless as he stared up at her.

One corner of her mouth quirked upward ever so slightly as she looked down at him in curious amusement.

Finally he snapped out of it as he stammered, "G-Gosh, I'm so sorry, ma'am! I didn't mean to- I wasn't watching where I was going! This is all my fault, I-"

"Dear boy, there is no need for that," she interjected with a chuckle that was soft and silvery. She reached a well-manicured hand down toward him. "Here, let me help you."

He stared dumbly at the offered hand for a second before accepting it and rising to his feet. He rubbed the back of his neck as his face turned slightly red. She seemed nice. Classy, even. "Th-thanks," he muttered shyly.

She studied him thoughtfully with a tilt of her head. "You're not from around here, are you?"

He blinked. "Actually, yeah. We... that is, my friends and I are just passing through on, uh... business." He winced. Wow, he felt really lame saying something like that to a high-powered career lady like this. She probably thought him quaint.

She gave him a warm smile. "Ah, a fellow entrepreneur. How delightful." She still had a delicate hold on his hand. Leaning in closer to him, she gently placed her free hand on his bracer. A pallid green, crackling spark passed from her long, thin fingers into the metal as she made contact. She didn't react to the flicker. He didn't notice it at all. "Well, try not to work yourself too hard, young man. Corona is a marvelous little city just brimming over with all sorts of fantastic distractions. Why, just tomorrow in fact is the world famous Starlight Festival. You should definitely set aside some time to go see it. In particular, the show at night is absolutely breathtaking."

"A festival?" That might explain the crowded streets and tourists as far as the eye could see. In any case, visiting this event might not be a bad idea. If he had learned anything about Keyholes, it was that they certainly seemed to like showing up wherever the most action was. Sora flashed her a giant grin. "Thanks for the suggestion. We'll definitely check it out!"

"My pleasure," she nodded.

"Anyway, I got to run, my friends are waiting on me. Thanks again!" He gave her an unnecessarily huge wave goodbye before turning and mumbling to himself, "The Starlight Festival, huh? Sounds like it'll be a night to remember." With that, he dashed off.

The woman folded her arms over her chest as she watched him go. Then a tiny smirk curved her lips. "A night to remember indeed, Keyblade Master." She chuckled and turned away, revealing that her bun was being held in place with a hair clip crafted into the shape of a finely detailed raven. The bird's eyes seemed to glimmer gold as she walked away.

A thought struck Sora and he came to a skidding halt. "Hey, where will the Starli-" he began to call back as he twisted around, but stopped when he realized she was gone. Jogging back a few steps, his eyes searched the throng of people milling around him. He felt like she wouldn't have been able to get far and someone like her would have stuck out of the masses like a sore thumb, but she was nowhere to be seen. It was as if she had simply vanished into thin air.

His brow furrowed, but then he shrugged and started running again.

He needed to get back to Elsa and Axel before they began to think he had become Heartless chow.

"Yup. He's probably Heartless chow by now."

"That's not funny," Elsa murmured distractedly as she anxiously scanned the face of every passerby.

Axel shrugged and smirked. "Come on, it's a little funny."

She turned her head to narrow her eyes at him. "How would you know?"

"You saying I don't have a sense of humor? That hurts. Right here," he placed a hand over his heart. Or rather, where it should have been. Then he quirked an eyebrow. "Wait." He knocked a fist against his chest and grinned. "No it doesn't. We're cool."

She snorted with a roll of her eyes as she returned her attention to watching for Sora.

Having had no success in their own hunt for the Keyhole, they had found their way back to the nightclub that they had all agreed to meet at after sundown and were now waiting in front of it. Axel was relaxed against a wall with his arms crossed while Elsa surveyed from the spot she had taken up in the middle of the sidewalk a few feet away. The club's activities seemed to be in full swing as it blasted out loud noises that could possibly be construed as music while partiers wearing more makeup than clothes wandered in and out of its front door. They had now been there for half an hour without so much of a hint of the spiky haired brunet that they were waiting on. They had tried texting him, but the reception here was no good.

After another minute, Elsa bit down on her lower lip. "Where is he? What's taking him so long?"

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure he's fine. Any minute now, he'll show up with that big, stupid smile on his face that he always seems to have."

She shifted her eyes to look at him once more. "You think so?"

He nodded. Then he glanced over at club entrance and tapped a finger to his chin in thought. Finally, he said, "Maybe he's already here and waiting for us inside."

Elsa blinked and followed his gaze. Then she slowly shook her head. "No, I doubt it."

"Why? We never said we'd meet out front," Axel pointed out. "He could have shown up before us, saw we weren't out here, then decided to look in there. Come on, it's at least worth checking out."

Shoving off the wall, he pushed passed a few clubgoers that had stepped out for some fresh air and walked in through entrance. It took him a few seconds to realize Elsa wasn't following right behind him. He peeked back out the door to see she hadn't budged an inch from her spot. She just stood there, wringing her bare hands together.

"You go," she told him, avoiding his gaze as he approached her once more. "I'll stay out here in case he shows up."

He watched in silence as she continued attempting to squeeze the life out of her fingers. Breathing a sigh out through his nose, he closed his hand softly around hers to still them. "Stop that."

She looked down and whispered, "I just… I don't want to hurt anyone."

He hunched forward to look her in the eye. "You said you wanted to learn to control your powers, right? Well, you gotta start somewhere."

Frowning up at him, she deadpanned, "And you believe a nightclub packed with hundreds of grinding dancers is the best place to start."

"Well yeah, when is it not?" he laughed. "It'll be okay. You'll see."

Still she hesitated. "...but what if I turn someone into the polar ice caps?"

"Then just call me global warming," he grinned before taking one of her hands in his and giving it a gentle tug.

Her feet dragged as she reluctantly let him pull her along. She said nothing, only stared down at his fingers interlaced with hers as he lead her in through the club's door, over which hung a bright, flashy neon sign.

It read The Snuggly Duckling.

AN: Aw snap, son! It's soooo close to happening! Everything and everyone is sooooo close to coming together! You can practically taste it! And it tastes like… um… VICTORY! Yeah, that's it xP Side note: I hope I left enough clues for ya'll to figure out who Sora had the pleasure of bumping into, even tho he clearly doesn't know it yet :3

Sad news guys! I only have 2 pre-written chapters of this story left! So only 2 more weeks of regular updates Dx Then after that, it'll just be as I have time to write for this story, while juggling with updating my other two active stories at the same time! (and hoping no new one-shot ideas come along to distract me lol) Don't worry, it'll all get finished! But you're about to see quite the slowdown in new stuff from me. Sorry, I do what I can, it just is what it is!

Special thanks and much love to Amarxlen, SoraKairiRikuNamine, Miss PandaManga, and Spiderfan626 for reviewing, as well as to everyone else who have shown support for my quirky little story! Thank you all for reading, hoped you liked it, please leave a review and let me know what you think! Until next week, sayonara!