#at some point in their trip Varian's hair just gets too long and in his way and Hugo catches him about to chop it off but stops him

[lollygaggingloser]

My mental health dipped significantly last night. Time to look at VAT7K content to generate serotonin and get me though my maladaptive daydreaming and dissociation.

People please send me your wildest headcanons, hot takes, or just tell me your favorite Tangled or VAT7K character and why.

[wtfwhy]

So I went through a bunch of different memes and threads about the ‘Zhan Tiri is Varian’s Mom’ theory and I just have to say that I love it but I’m so disappointed there’s so little about it. I couldn’t even find any fics!! So, while I won’t be writing my own, I’ll write down my headcanon for this AU/Theory in a story outline format. Anyone can adopt and write this if they want, just tell me first please. If there's any mistakes it's because I'm posting this half asleep. Oh and, sorry, I would put the read more thing but I don't know how to :/...

So for background, Zhan Tiri had like a big time crush on Demanitus and wanted to be with him, but he big time friendzoned her. Then she became all evil (for separate, canon, reasons) and he banished her to the limbo or whatever

While there she is just vibing for a few (1,000?) years, but then one day (Two years before Varian is born) She spies a little rip in the limbo place, big enough to escape from

But the time spent there drained her significantly, she has like 5% magic or something and is weak physically in general

She figures out that she won’t be able to spend too much time free, only approximately two years, so there wasn’t really anytime to enact any evil, epic, plan of revenge just yet. She was too weak to get started regardless. But she still needs to make this time count.

While trying to figure out what she should do, she stumbles upon Old Corona and sees Quirin

Ok, more background, Qurirn (and so Varian) are direct descendants of Demanitus, like his great great whatever grandsons

And Quirin just so happens to look like Demanitus

Zhan Tiri immediately recognizes that he’s related to Demanitus and starts her plan to take advantage of this

She has just the smallest amount of magic left and uses it to shapeshift into the form of what Varian’s mother looked like in that portrait. An unassuming, kind looking commoner woman

She does the whole, ‘trips into his arms and acts flustered’ and he falls for it perfectly

By the end of the first year, they’re married and she’s pregnant

When she’s just out of labor she uses some stored up magic (from the months of resting) to produce a fake body that looks like her fake form and uses it to fake her own death via childbirth. It’s not too long after that when she’s sucked back into the limbo hell place

While stuck in there, she’s able to occasionally peer through little windows into the mortal world. From there she’s able to (kinda, and sporadically) watch Varian grow up

She sees him learn about alchemy and build machines and is like big proud

She sees when Varian meets Rapunzel for the first time (she recognizes Raps as the Sundrop™ right away) and she definitely sees the Storm and Amber incident. She watches as her husband (technically still married) gets encased in Amber and her son is thrown out into a blizzard with no help for his father

Now, here’s the thing, her fake relationship with Quirin was of a loving wife, but she didn’t particularly care for him. BUT she does have a dull attachment to him and he is the father to her child. She cares about him enough to want to get back at anyone who harmed him (which might be a bit of a territorial urge but they are technically still married)

And with Varian? She ADORES Varian. Every bone in her evil body loves that little scientist. (The only problem with this, is that, while yes, she does love him, it’s borderlining on an unhealthy love for reasons that include, but are not limited to...

She’s had no mothering experience and is (will be) absolutely terrible at it, she values his mind and what he can do quite similarly to how Gothel views Rapunzel’s hair (but unlike her actually cares for his well being beyond that as well), and well she’s just an evil person who will use him for her evil schemes)

ANYWAY all this concludes to the fact that now Zhan Tiri has a reason other than her being the Sundrop™ to hate Rapunzel, a very personal reason

Luckily for her, the Storm weakened the Limbo barrier place enough so that when she broke out this time? Well, not at full power, but lots of magic and strength!! But she is confined to a astral form, or otherwise she’s in her little ghost form

She’ll be able to show herself to one person (ngl i think the reason Cass could see her was because she was at the hotel then had the moonstone so idk how else Varian could see her right at this point and I might be completely wrong, but whatever I’m going with this) and she choses Varian of course. She changes to look like the form of his mother and appears to him while he’s deliriously trying to break his dad out of the amber

The poor kid hasn’t eaten or slept for days and is handling dangerous chemicals, so when he sees her (after the initial shock of seeing his dead mother’s astral projection) he assumes that she’s an hallucination

She forces him to sleep (and eat) and eventually she is able to convince him that she’s real

She then convinces him to get his revenge on Rapunzel (he had been still trying to convince himself that she was ok and/or that she would come check on him after the storm)

I can't really think of what would happen between then and the finale, but I imagine he still gets arrested and Zhan Tiri gives him advice on how to break out (like guard schedules or whatever) and also spies on Rapunzel’s group traveling (let's say she can teleport wherever with her ghostly form)

There would be no Andrew and Varian team up if I were to write it but whatever

And that’s all I can really think of tbh

Also Quirin would probably die or something lol

Zhan Tiri watching Varian destroy Corona:

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - Rapunzeltopia

This episode, much like many other plot important episodes of the first two seasons, is decent on it its own, but becomes retroactively worse due to season three’s bad writing and behind the scenes bullshit. 

Summary:  Matthews reveals himself as another dark spirit and disciple of Zhan Tiri, and traps Eugene, Lance and the others in unbreakable vines similar to the Great Tree's evil magic. He has Rapunzel live the perfect life while he prepares to hand over the mystical powers of the Sundrop to his master. Fortunately, Rapunzel is able to make contact with her brown-haired dream self and attempts to convince her to let go. 

Timeline Alert

So what does almost a year ago mean? The Great Tree was six months out, and then in Mirror, Mirror, Lance said that they been fighting for three weeks since. So how long have then been stuck in this shell house? Because You’re Kidding Me was just the next day after Mirror, Mirror. Was Lance’s ‘three weeks’ comment meant to be after Brothers Hooks and Rapunzel: Day One and not Great Tree? Are we 7, 8, 9, or 10 months out from Secret of the Sundrop? Like be clear about your time frame guys if you’re going to use it as a plot point. 

I’m going to say we are 9 months along on this trip, just cause that sounds closer to ‘almost a year ago’ without keeping them all trapped in the shell house for months. So Great Tree is 6 months, Brother’s Hook and Rapunzel Day One is 7 months, Mirror, Mirror is going on 8 months, and at the end of this episode they’ll be heading into the 9 month period...I guess. Lets just say they were trapped there for a week or two. 

This Episode Only Highlights How Self Centered and Immature Rapunzel Still Is Rather Than Showcase How Much She’s Grown 

The point behind this episode is show how much Rapunzel has grown since season one, and how she is accepting of responsibility now, but it actually backfires because she’s not actually being challenged on her selfish desires but on her lack of agency. Which is the wrong lesson that she needs to be learning at this point in her development.

Rapunzel in her subconscious mind doesn’t wish for what’s best for other people but what’s best for herself. People she must interact with on the regular have to be superficially happy even if it completely warps their character. While people she doesn't care about, like Lady Caine, can just be simply banished and ignored regardless if they deserve such an end or not.  She doesn’t see people as people with individual thoughts and feelings, but as satellites to herself and her narrow worldview.  

 Also, ‘I believe everyone deserves a second chance’ my eye! Caine never gets even a first chance in Rapunzel’s own fantasy world. Because Rapunzel is a selfish hypocrite who’s ‘redemptions’ always comes with strings attached. 

Here Comes the Dumbest Plot Point In the Show

I’ll talk about this more when we get to season three, but this scene is the beginning of the end for any dignity the show once held. 

Also why would ‘I don’t trust anyone’ Cassandra follow a creepy voice calling her name through a doorway inside a magic house that’s tried to kill her twice now? 

If you gotta make you character act out of character in order to get your plot rolling than you haven’t a good plot. Think of something else. 

What’s the Point of Having Two Names? 

They did this both with Sugarbee and Matthews here and it makes zero sense. Why would they need to bother with fake names if the heroes wouldn’t even recognize their real names to begin with? Such revelations add nothing and fails to tell the audience anything new about the characters.  It’s also not consistent as it turns out Gothel was a disciple too and she only gets one name, so what gives? 

So How Does This All Work Again?

So Zhan Tiri needs ‘a clash of the sundrop and moonstone’ in order to be freed from her prison. Why? I don’t know, but holding Rapunzel prisoner for life actually undermines that plan, and it’s a plan that Zhan Tiri is currently setting up with Cassandra off screen during all of this. 

So does Tromus/Matthews just not know that Zhan Tiri is already ‘free’ and has her own plans?

Is Rapunzel’s power being drained what gives Zhan Tiri a foothold in the real world?

Or was Zhan Tiri released back in the Great Tree with the removal of the spear and that’s why she knows to go after Cass? 

What was up with the Great Tree and the sealed tree back in Painter’s Block? Did they have any impact on Zhan Tiri’s plans?  

Were any of the disciples actually useful at all? 

So What Do the Disciples Gain From All This?

Sugarbee, Matthews, and Gothel were all once real people who actually lived so what are their reasons for following Zhan Tiri? What do they gain from going through such complicated plans? Why continue to follow someone after you’ve been dead for centuries and are a ghost now, and were presumably trapped and or killed by Demantius for following her? Real people don’t just hold on to such fanatical devotion without reason. 

This Conflict Over Choices Does Not Work Without Varian

Going back to how this episode fails to develop Rapunzel; it wants to have Rapunzel take responsibility for difficult choices, but much like Painters Block, it completely ignores her biggest fuck up thereby undermining why she has trouble with owning up to hard choices.  

Rapunzel ruined a child’s life. She may not have meant to but she did, and thus far she has done nothing to make amends for it. She’s not even spared the poor boy a single thought beyond seeing him as the boogeyman in a nightmare once. 

You can’t have Rapunzel take responsibility for anything if you won’t hold her accountable for anything.  

Varian was meant to appear in this episode, and indeed he should have for the above reason. 

But of course Chris had to give us a bullshit excuse for why he cut the most plot important character from the series. 

I’ve already spoken about how Varian’s cameo in Happiness Is did nothing to actually further develop Rapunzel nor explore her guilt back in that review. In this episode, however, I want to discuss how hollow the comparisons to Gothel is and why there shouldn’t logically have been any competition between the two. 

Varian and Gothel provide two completely different conflicts and two completely different points of development for Rapunzel’s arc. Gothel is the instigator of her conflict with Rapunzel. Rapunzel, as the victim, has only one thing to learn, self esteem. She learned it back in the movie, she relearned it back in the season one, and here she’s re-contextualizing it for this episode’s mini-arc. 

Meanwhile Rapunzel is the instigator of her conflict with Varian. She’s the one with the power in their relationship and her choices matter. She doesn’t need to learn agency because she already has it. What she needs to learn is responsibility and she can’t do that without confronting Varian and what she did in some manner. So unlike with Gothel there only new ground to cover here rather than rehashing old conflicts. 

Chris Sonnenburg has things all backwards. Rapunzel’s agency/self-esteem issues and her need to take responsibility for her actions are not interchangeable conflicts. Addressing one does not automatically address the other, and of the two her conflict with responsibility holds more weight because it’s ongoing. We haven’t seen the resolvement there. It also affects more people than just herself so the stakes are higher there as well. And to top it all off, it fits with the themes of the episode better. 

Also, you very much could have had both characters because they both reflect different conflicts and serve different purposes in the narrative. Time management in television is a very big deal yes, but you have little grounds for defense when all you’ve shown is how poorly you’ve managed your time until now. 

In short, Chris is full of shit. 

No, It Wouldn’t

We’ve already established that there’s no need for Rapunzel to go on her quest in season two. The black rocks are inactive, there’s no ticking clock she has to beat, and her staying at home would have actually prevented the conflicts in season three. 

Unless dream Rapunzel is referring to Zhan Tiri being released, but even that is false because Zhan Tiri is already floating around a little blue ghost girl off screen right now. What Rapunzel choses or chooses not to do does not change that. 

Lack of external conflict undermines internal conflict.  

Just Cause You Make A Meta Joke About Your Heroes Being Dumb For No Reason, Does Not Make Them Any Less Stupid 

Jokingly admitting a fault in your writing doesn’t not excuse that fault. If you can’t have a plot without handing the idiot ball to your characters than you haven’t a good plot. Time to go back to drawing board. 

Season Three Will Go Back On This Episode’s Message and Prove the Villian Right

I’ve liget seen fans unironically praise the show for it’s message of ‘be content with what you have’. Not only is that a terrible lesson to teach children; it’s actually the exact opposite of what the show is trying to achieve.

“Be satisfied” is suppose to be the wrong motto. Rapunzel is suppose to be fighting against this message. In the episode itself it’s the villian who is saying such things in order to tempt her to stay put. 

So how could anyone look at the show as a whole and come away with idea that the one off villain was right along? 

Because season three does a complete 180 away from its original messages regarding agency and responsibility. All consequences disappear from the story and the mains are given convenient scapegoats to distract from their decisions. Characters actively regress and are rewarded by the narrative for either not doing anything or for victim blaming others for their actions. 

But most damaging of all is the fact that nearly everyone winds up back where they started out at, or aren’t given a proper ending at all. Tangled’s story is just one giant circle and that in of itself contradicts the idea of progress.  

Cassandra’s Hurt Hand Is Only Relevant When The Story Wants Rapunzel to Feel Guilty About Something  

Oh but we can just throw Cassandra’s burnt hand in here as a substitute Rapunzel’s guilt over Varian. Even though the two incidents should actually complement one another rather than compete for dominance. 

Tangled doesn’t trust its audience to remember things. It acts like if it’s off screen or not being focused upon than it’s not happening or isn’t relevant. This undermines any ongoing or overarching conflicts.  

Why should we care about Cassandra’s arm if she’s been shown as being fine with it for four episodes by now? Especially since it’ll never come up again after this point? And on the flip side of things, why should the audience not care about the 15 year old who has been sitting in a dungeon for almost a year now due to Rapunzel’s neglect?  

We’re not magpies who are quickly distracted by shiny new things. We are capable of retaining information and informing decisions based off of that. Especially if Chris was shooting for the teen audience as he claims he was. 

Oh But We Got Time For Godzilla-Pascal 

Can’t spare even half a minute for a Varian cameo that would be relevant, but we sure got time to waste on a pointless action sequence that does nothing to further the character in what is meant to be a character development episode. 

This Scene Is Out of Character 

That’s not how abuse works! 

The whole reason why Gothel was able to keep Rapunzel under her thumb for 18 years because Rapunzel always sought her approval. Never at any point, even when finally choosing to break away from her in the movie, did Rapunzel wish to harm the woman. That goes against who she is as a character and it’s not how abuse victims respond to abusers even after cutting things off with them. 

If anything, Rapunzel’s treatment of Frederic in Happiness Is is more in line with how a victim goes about mourning the loss of an abusive relationship. Victims grieve for what might have been. Victims mourn the loss of what good times they had with their abusers, because yes, abusers aren’t abusive 100% of the time 24/7. They can’t be or they risk losing their victim quicker.  

I initially was ok with flashbacks to Gothel on occasion because no victim ever makes a completely clean break from their abuser. Even ‘moving on’ isn’t some triumphant singular action when you stand tall while you knock your opponent down in a wish fulfilment fantasy.

No. ‘Moving on’ is slow. It’s understated. It’s routine. It’s about being able to do the dishes without getting triggered. It’s sitting at lunch with friends and being happy and calm without the fear of returning home hanging over your head. It’s not skipping out on work because your anxiety is through the roof over just meeting with your boss. It’s not devolving into a yelling match over something minor because you internalize your abusers behavior.  

Abuse victims don’t celebrate violence as strength. We celebrate being an unmovable mountain of clam fortitude. Being in control even as the world rages at us, because we’re self assured. 

The fact that this scene exists, while Happiness Is shows Rapunzel behaving the opposite way to the father who abused her the same as Gothel did, only proves that a man shouldn’t have been in charge of this show. Certainly not without a woman by his side giving equal input. 

Stop Using Destiny as a Shorthand for Everything!

Destiny isn’t a catch all word that can mean whatever you want it to. Words have definitions for a reason. Destiny isn’t a goal nor does it equate to agency and responsibility; kind of the opposite in fact. 

Well That Was Redundant

All we did was rehash Rapunzel’s season one arc in under half in hour. Nothing new was learned. It’s like writers don’t know how to resolve any conflict that isn’t a repeat of the first movie. Meanwhile actual unique conflicts are just sitting off to the side being ignored. All because the show’s creator doesn’t want to hold his precious self insert accountable for anything. 

Bye Bye Smart Cass, Hello Dumb Cass

So from this point onward the Cass we’ve known for nearly two seasons is gone. She’s just been replaced by the dumbest bitch on the planet. Because the writers don’t understand how manipulation and trauma actually works. Nor do they comprehend the importance of giving characters actual goals.  

Conclusion 

Season three is what retroactively spoils this episode. Cass’s dumb decision here, Zhan Tiri’s lack of a coherent plan, the uselessness of the disciples, and even the lack of Varian could have been glossed over had they writers given us a satisfying pay offs for any of the main conflicts. But they didn’t and so here we are. 

Also a small update, but after this review and starting next week, the Salt Marathon will go from bi weekly updates to only one a week. This is a combination of real life work getting in the way and the growing length of the reviews. This means we’ll hopefully be done come March, which would mark the show’s anniversary. I got some plans to celebrate if that works out. 

[fletchphoenix]

Are We Forgetting Something?

Just finished editing Chapter 17 of Coffee Tastes Better When I Drink It With You!!! Please bear in mind this was written before Christmas but I wrote loads and had to cut it down and edit it a lot. I hope you enjoy the double update!! <3

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Hugo grumbled as he woke up, Ruddiger jumping onto his chest and taking his place there as though he were a king taking his place on a throne. He purred for a second, his rough tongue licking Hugo’s face and jolting the man to fully being awake rather than his dazed state. “Alright, alright you dumb cat.” He muttered as he sat up, feeling around on his bedside table as he searched for his glasses and put them on. As the world became clearer, he glanced down to his left, taking a moment to glance down at his fiance with a smile playing on his lips. He looked beautiful. Really, really beautiful. 

Hair was sprawled out on the pillow around him like a halo as he snored, his mouth open as he slept. It was a bad habit, really, and he’d noticed his fiance never grew out of it. It was cute as hell though, the other always pulling a face when he woke up at how dry his mouth was. Hugo let out a little chuckle at the thought of it. His fiance really was the biggest dork ever, huh? Still, he admired the man before him as he slept, taking in the little freckles and marks over his face, Hugo reaching over to gently brush a strand of hair away from Varian’s face and being careful not to wake the man up, and, as if he was wired to ruin the moment, Ruddiger took a scratch at Hugo’s forearm. “Ow you fat bastard! Fine, I’ll go get you some food, but you fuckin’ owe me for this.” He grumbled as he rose to his feet, the glint of Varian’s engagement ring not going unnoticed as he made his way out of the room. He couldn’t help the little smile that took over his features as he was reminded of last night. 

As he walked through the tiny apartment, he couldn’t help the feeling he was forgetting something, his hands instinctively moving to lift the cat bowl from the floor and placing it on the counter. He took a look at the clock. 10:27am. Why did he feel like he was forgetting something? Sinking back into the routine, he took out a sachet and emptied the contents into the metallic bowl, Ruddiger deciding to just jump on the counter and eat it right then and there. “You really are a fat bitch, huh.” He muttered under his breath, and he could swear the cat hissed at him in response as he took their mugs from the cupboard and began to boil some water to make a coffee. He really couldn’t shake the feeling he’d forgotten something...was it Donella’s birthday? No, that was in February...Eugene’s? No...the arrogant bastard would have reminded them at least a billion times if that was the case. 

Arms wrapped around his waist, almost scaring the shit out of him as his muscles stiffened and a loud chuckle sounded from behind him as Varian pressed a kiss to the back of his shoulder. “Hey baby…” He whispered, and Hugo could tell that the bastard was grinning smugly as he continued to press kisses against the skin. “Sleep well, my handsome fiance..?” 

“Yes, very, until your bitch of a cat decided to wake me up because he decided his insatiable appetite needed to be at least slightly satisfied in order for him to be happy.” Hugo complained, though his boyfriend simply let out a soft laugh. “Don’t laugh! Our son is literally the worst and he knows what he’s doing because he never wakes you up! Only me!”

“Maybe if you stopped calling him fat, he would hate you a bit less.” Varian whispered, Hugo turning to retaliate before a kiss was placed to his lips and, miraculously, he forgot what he was talking about. They settled into a nice, slow kiss, Varian gently pushing his fiance against the counter as the blond’s hand moved to entangle themselves in raven locks. They would’ve gone further too, if it weren’t for the sudden buzzing and ringing emitting from Varian’s phone in their bedroom. Slowly, the younger one broke the kiss. “Who the fuck is even calling me..” He groaned as he left his boyfriend standing in the kitchen, a childish groan leaving his lips. “Oh fuck. Hugo, remember the day?”

“No actually-” The blond paused. He checked the clock again. 10:34am. He left the kitchen, the fat cat finishing off his food as he stepped into the living room. The Christmas tree was still up. He’d proposed last night as an early Christmas present for Varian, and he’d said yes. That meant yesterday was Christmas Eve and today was…”Shit. Varian, we’re late. We’re late!” he yelled out, rushing into the bedroom to get changed, his boyfriend having already remembered the occasion. Quickly, he scrambled to get dressed, almost tripping over as he pulled on some black slacks and a green dress shirt, buttoning it up and hastily fixing his hair. “Oh fuck, Rapunzel is gonna kill us for being late! Shit!” 

“Don’t you think I already know that!” Varian yelled in response, his choice of outfit being jeans, a white dress shirt and a cyan sweater over the top. Joining Hugo at the dresser, they both desperately tried to fix their hair before rushing to the hall and pulling their shoes on. He had to be honest though, his boyfriend still looked damn good, even when he was rushing to look his best. He was a sight to behold - a sight that made Hugo’s knees feel very very weak and caused him not to think straight. His outfit looked good too, especially when he pulled on his coat and wrapped Hugo’s old scarf around his neck to prepare himself for the bitter weather outside. “You ready to go and get murdered by Rapunzel?”

Hugo took his boyfriend’s hand, raising it to his lips and pressing a gentle kiss to the back of his palm, a smile on his face as he saw the other’s face flush red. No matter how much affection he showered the other with, he could never seem to get used to it. It was absolutely adorable in his opinion, the man never ceased to warm his heart. He loved that about him. The same flush always came to his cheeks at the slightest gestures. “Ready as I’ll ever be, darling.” He responded, unlocking the door and heading out into the hallway. 

Walking down the stairs hand in hand was always awkward, the stairs too narrow to let more than one person walk. It honestly seemed like a fire hazard in Hugo’s opinion, but the whole building was essentially a living deathtrap so he wasn’t really surprised. But it was still home. Well, not technically. Hugo’s head raised to look at Varian, who jumped the last two stairs instead of walking down them and a wide smile grew on his face, the joy on his face infectious. Home was wherever he was with Varian. His eyes drifted down to the other’s ring and his smile grew wider, if that was even possible at this point with how happy he already was. 

“I wanna take the motorbike. We’re already too late and walking will slow us down.” Varian rambled as he intertwined his fingers with Hugo’s, the pair already heading over to the aforementioned vehicle. As soon as the green metal came into sight, Varian perked up with a smile and shuffled even closer to his boyfriend. Hugo swung his leg over, his boyfriend following suit and wrapping his arms around his waist before proceeding to drive through the city roads en route to Rapunzel and Eugene’s cottage.

Varian’s head rested against Hugo’s back, the smile on the blond’s face never disappearing as he felt the warmth of the man behind him and the gentle sigh of wonder as he watched the busy city turn into serene countryside. He’d never felt more loved than in that moment, the other man absolutely full of wonder as he looked out at the changing landscapes that he knew all too well. Quietly, Hugo pulled into the driveway of the cottage and took the key out of the ignition, swinging his leg off the bike and helping steady his fiance as he did the same. “Damn baby, you fell right into my arms. You alright?” He chuckled softly, earning a gentle shove as he simply burst out into laughter. Hand in hand, the pair opened the gate and made their way up to the door.

Cassandra opened the door, Irene standing beside her, and both with disappointed expressions on their faces. Cass had...definitely changed, her once bobbed hair now in an undercut with shaved sides. Not to say it didn’t suit her - it definitely did. She looked great. Irene looked different too, her once long hair cut into a bob. “You two are late. Y’know she’s gonna kill you right?” The raven haired woman stated before losing the facade and pulling the boys into a hug. “C’mere you gay nerds, I’ve missed you two so so much…” 

“We’ve missed you too, Cassie.” Varian replied, smiling up at the woman before letting Irene pull them into an embrace as well. Hugo had never really gotten used to that - all the cuddling and hugging...Donella never was one for that kind of thing. She always tended to keep her distance from Hugo and his emotions, other than the time that Ulla had shown up and everything had gone to shit…but he preferred not to think about that. Not when it was Varian’s favourite time of the year (though Hugo much preferred Halloween, like an excuse to scare the crap out of little kids all while dressing up in a cheap costume? It was like heaven!). 

A gasp from down the hall broke him from his thoughts, Rapunzel standing there with her arms folded and a frown on her face. Hugo wasn’t even sure whether he’d seen her frown before - it felt terrifying. “So you wanna explain why you were late?” She raised her eyebrow, the boys stuttering excuses before the woman practically jumped into their arms. They stumbled back into the wall as the woman broke their ribs in the biggest, tightest hug they’d ever been in, before pulling away and gasping to grab their hands and stared and their fingers. “Oh my god! When did this happen? Who asked first? You have to tell me everything!” She giggled as she pulled them along and sat them down, Lance and the girls waving to them as Eugene sat on the floor.

“Oh um, well…last night, I was waiting for Hugo to come home from work to propose, and he decided to propose when I was planning to. Hugo asked first and...I said yes if he would say yes too so...yeah!” Varian laughed, explaining last night as if it wasn’t like some weird cliche moment from a movie or a book. Hugo wrapped his arm around the other’s shoulder, pressing a kiss to his jawline with a soft smile and listening as Rapunzel rambled on about something or the other. He didn’t really listen though, he simply kept holding his boyfriend close to him and playing with his hair happily. 

“Rapunzel, did you tell them the news?” Eugene asked from his place on the floor, a wide grin on his face as he rose to his feet and wrapped his arms around his wife’s waist, pressing a kiss to the junction between her neck and her collarbone. When he was younger, Hugo would’ve gagged at the gesture, but now...well, he knew he was just as sappy as the man in front of him. He was rather happy, really, that he and Eugene managed to eventually get along, especially after their little talk last Christmas. He’d never admit it but he kinda liked the guy.

“Oh, yeah! I’m pregnant!” she smiled widely, Varian gasping and immediately rising to his feet (much to Hugo’s dismay) and swarming her with questions. Hugo simply nodded in congratulations towards Eugene, the man giving him a smile and nodding back in return as he moved away from his wife and headed towards the kitchen. Yep, he definitely liked Eugene. 

The pair must’ve rambled for hours about names and genders, until Rapunzel finally put the conversation to a close. “Anyway, it’s time for food!” she laughed cheerfully as she rose to her feet and walked towards the kitchen, everyone following in her footsteps and taking their seats at the table. Hugo’s, thankfully, was next to Varian and Irene, the woman paying more attention to her fiancee and the other people at the dinner table than Hugo. He’d always found Christmas awkward, having never been able to celebrate it when he was living with Donella. They’d always found it difficult to get money, so when they had it, they wouldn’t spend it on something like Christmas, so as soon as he came here with Varian, who adored Christmas and spent it with his family...it was a very sharp 180 to what he was used to. He didn’t know how to react, so he simply held his fiance’s hand under the table as he ate and listened to the conversations taking place.

After dinner had finished, Varian and Hugo took their seat on the couch, their arms around each other as people slowly started to leave. They could stay for longer - there was no rush and they felt terrible about arriving late, so it wouldn’t hurt to stay a little while. Hugo’s fingers threaded through Varian’s hair as he pressed a kiss to the man’s temple and stared out the window. Snow was now falling quite heavy - it would probably make the roads dangerous. He’d loved snow but...he knew Varian couldn’t leave, the man’s breathing already quickening as Hugo shuffled to shield his vision.

“You two can stay here tonight, boys. The roads aren’t safe.” Rapunzel replied as she moved towards the window with a frown, watching the little, white flakes hit the dirt roads and stick to it. “You can have the spare room, but please, don’t try and drive, okay?” She smiled sadly at Hugo, the blond nodding in agreement. There was no way in hell he was driving anywhere in a snowstorm when his boyfriend was here, not after what he’d told him on the night they’d confessed their feelings to each other. And, as he locked eyes with Rapunzel, he could see all the guilt in her eyes from the past few years. He felt bad for her, really. Her and Varian were quite similar in that sense - both of them had never really forgiven themselves for how they’d acted back then. 

“We’ll head upstairs.” Hugo stated, rising to his feet and gently pulling his boyfriend along with him towards the staircase. They ascended the creaking stairs before Varian took the lead. Hugo had never really been upstairs in the cottage before, hell, he didn’t even know it had an upstairs until he found the staircase. His fiance pushed open an oak door, showing a small guest room, decorated in typical Rapunzel style decor, with paintings on the wall of different flowers, birds and stars, and bookshelves full of books pressed against the wall. In the middle of the room was a double bed, Varian immediately pulling Hugo towards it after he shut the door and virtually pulled the man down to lie beside him. “How’re you holding up, goggles?” 

“Not very well. I just wanna cuddle and sleep.” Varian muttered as he buried his head into his chest, Hugo being able to feel the tears soaking through. A gentle sigh left his mouth as he played with his fiance’s hair and pressed kisses against this forehead, singing a little melody to him in an attempt to soothe the man. Slowly, he felt the tears stop pooling on his chest as Varian muttered against his shirt. “I love you, Hugh. I don’t tell you enough...I love you so so much..” he choked out, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry I keep acting this way-”

“Don’t apologise, sweetheart. It’s okay.” He whispered. “It's okay to cry and be upset - I get it. It’ll all be alright. I’m here and nothing can hurt you.” Hugo reassured the man in his arms and, eventually, the body beside him lost its tension as he fell asleep, gentle snores soon following and Hugo moved back to see the man’s mouth wide open, a sad little chuckle leaving his lips as he looked down at the sight. Quietly, he brought him closer, resting his chin on top of the man’s head as he stared at the wall. 

He really wished he could take all of his boyfriend’s pain away and kiss away all of his tears, though he knew he couldn’t. It hurt him to see him hurting - to hear his boyfriend in so much pain...he let out yet another sigh as he closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around his waist even tighter than before. “I love you so much, Varian.” He whispered into the air, closing his eyes and letting himself fall asleep.

[whitecatindisguise]

Give Him A Chance To Mend

I'm alive, lmao. Took me long enough to update this story, and I hope this want to write is not temporary, and will last unless until I finish it.

Anyway, AO3 link can be found here, and the newest chapter is put under read more, to not spam the dash with long post.

So, enjoy.

Chapter 4: Raise A Little Hell

Varian and Quirin were working in the fields, when it happened. There was no sign, no way to prepare themselves. It took them both by surprise and left them wishing they didn't have to ever deal with it. 

It started innocently. Adira and Hector left for training,while Varian offered to help his father with the harvest. They were nearing lunch break, when the two came back, wearing unrecognisable faces. 

"Aunt Adira? Uncle Hector?" Varian called out to them, confused by their behaviour. He never saw that kind of expression on them, and didn't know what to make of it. 

"Did something happen?" Quirin inquired from a little further, placing a pumpkin on a half-full cart. 

"You could say that." The woman replied, pursing her lips together. 

Varian observed the two and noticed a crunched paper held in his uncle's hand. He cocked his head to the side, wondering what's on it, already figuring out it must be the cause of their off behaviour. 

"Well, neither of us is a mind-reader, so maybe you could tell us what's wrong." Quirin said, putting his arms on his hips. "Unless you want to continue this staring contest."

"Why our nephew has a wanted poster?" Hector asked. Both father and son blinked, not really registering the question. 

"We were training in the woods, when we found this." The man unrolled the paper and a 14-year-old Varian glared at his older self from the poster. Oh…

"We missed one." The alchemist mumbled, more to himself than anyone in particular, but it managed to make Adira and Hector give him a weird look. He chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his neck. "I… might have commited treason once?" He said, attempting to make it sound like a joke and failing miserably. It was only partly worth the bewildered faces of his aunt and uncle. 

Quirin sighed and picked up the cart, wheeling it towards the shed. 

"Let's go inside. It's a long story." He said. Hector sputtered. 

"You knew?!" He screamed. 

"Can we talk inside… please?" Varian asked, looking deeply uncomfortable. The two Brotherhood members shared a look and nodded. 

"I expect to be explained everything, nephew." Adira said, as he led them back to the house.

"Oh joy…" They heard his response. 

It took ten more minutes for them to get settled in the kitchen, Quirin insisting he prepare mugs of hot cocoa. For grounding, he said. Neither of his siblings questioned it, but they did exchange confused glances. 

Finally, they all sat down around the kitchen table, Varian picking nervously at his gloves, Ruddiger curled comfortingly around his neck. 

"So… treason?" Adira spoke up. Varian sighed and straightened up, curling his hands around his mug. 

"Let me start from the beginning." He said. Adira nodded, Hector remaining silent but attentive. "Six months after Princess Rapunzel was brought back, and two days after the failed coronation, she and Cass..andra came to Old Corona in search of the great wizard. "He made quotation marks with his hands and put them back around the mug. "which was how people used to call me, since they didn't know anything about alchemy and thought what I was doing was magic. Anyway, the Princess wanted to ask about her hair which magically reappeared, I tried to help but couldn't come up with anything specific. Then her boyfriend arrived, I told him about my water heaters, which were highly unstable back then, and long story short, they blew up and the Princess and her entourage left while I stayed to clean up the mess. Then we met at the Science Expo few weeks later, I asked Cassandra to be my assistant, she agreed but stood me up later, that's not really important and now it seems I'm rambling-"

"Drink some hot cocoa, son." Quirin helpfully suggested. Varian nodded and took a few gulps, exhaled slowly and continued. 

"Anyway, after the expo I showed Princess the black rocks that grew outside the village, and she asked me to research ways to get rid of them, promising we'll get to the bottom of this together. So, in secret and against dad's orders, I've spent next weeks studying those rocks, trying to find anything to make them stop growing, or, better yet, get rid of them entirely. At some point, when the village was almost completely overrun, me and dad travelled to the capital to ask the King for help. I wasn't allowed inside the throne room, but I overheard dad lying about us having a good harvest and needing more land to store all the crops." 

Adira and Hector both looked surprised. 

"Quirin lying?" The woman asked. 

"It was a code." The man quickly explained. "I didn't want everyone to panic about what was happening. My words actually meant we need a place to move to until the situation is taken care of."

"But, of course, I didn't know that, so I lashed out at dad, he lashed out at me, then the Princess came and I told her what's going on and she, yet again, promised to help me once her parents will be back from their anniversary trip, during which she was to act as a Queen." Varian added. "But then everything went downhill. Dad caught me during one of my experiments on the rocks and we had a fight about secrets and such. I didn't notice one of my solutions spilling on the rock, but dad did. He pushed me away and got stuck in amber, me running to the capital to get Princess' help. At the same time, an enormous snowstorm hit, which later I learned was caused my Zhan Tiri herself. Anyway, I managed to get to the castle, but as I begged for help, the Princess refused, saying she had to stay and help the others, and I was thrown out into the storm."

"You were what?!" Hector screamed, standing up abruptly, his chair falling to the floor with a loud clatter. 

"Sit down and drink your cocoa, Hector." Quirin ordered. "You getting angry now won't change what happened."

"And you're fine with this?" The man questioned angrily. 

"I had the same reaction as you did when I found out." The farmer replied calmly. "The matter was resolved long time ago. There is no need to dwell on it."

"They threw a freak-"

"Language."

"A teenager, my nephew, in the middle of the snowstorm!" Hector finished, fuming. "And you expect me to not get mad?!"

"Let Hairstripe finish, Hector." This time it was Adira who spoke. She looked as collected as ever, but Quirin knew her long enough to know she was just as angry as her brother. 

The green-eyed man grumbled, but picked up his chair and sat down, crossing his arms and mumbling under his breath. 

"A-anyway" Varian continued. "I ran back home but I was too late, dad already fully encased in the amber. I worked day and night, trying to find a way to save him. At some point I've found a hidden chest in his room, full of armour pieces, weapons and a piece of the scroll with a drawing of the sundrop, the black rocks and some weird language. Took me some time, but I finally managed to decipher it enough to know the Sundrop might be the way to end all this. Oh, and in the meantime, the King apparently decided I know too much and sent royal guards dressed in masks and coats to make sure I don't tell anyone. The rest of the village moved to the new land long ago, so nobody was around to stop them. I called the Princess to the village, using a lantern with a tied letter, to find the scroll which I hid in my lab. I wanted her to see dad, see why I was doing what I was doing. Then, a week later, I came to the capital to meet her in secret, because somebody spread a rumour I attacked her on the day of the storm and people didn't really like me walking around anymore. I managed to persuade her to sneak into Royal Vault with me and stole the Sundrop Flower. But, it turned out its power was long gone, moved to the Princess instead. So, I devised a new plan. I built an army of automatons, used alchemically-turned monster Ruddiger as a distraction and kidnapped the Queen, all to get the Princess' attention. And, of course, she came, along with the citizens of Corona ready to fight the dangerous alchemist of Old Corona. I made her use her hair to try and free dad, but when that also failed… I snapped. I went total rampage, and even tried to kill Cassandra and the Queen. I was only stopped when the Princess touched the black rocks, which blew up and impaled the automaton I was controlling. I was arrested and the Princess went her merry way, on a journey following the black rocks."

"I've seen the aftermath of the battle before but I didn't realise…" Adira seemed genuinely shocked. "It was you?"

"Turns out being left without adult supervision and having someone promise help and then back out when they start to feel uncomfortable does that to people." Varian shrugged, but they could see he was ashamed of his actions. "Or just to me."

"Is this true?" Hector looked at Quirin for confirmation. The man nodded. 

"The Princess confirmed it." He said. 

"Wait, the Princess went to the Dark Kingdom…" Hector looked like he didn't really want to hear an answer to his question, but he asked anyway. "What happened to you?"

"Prison." Varian replied darkly

[alkae]

Green Isn’t Your Color

“A ball?”

The boys all gaped at Nuru as she announced that the next kingdom they were going to was hosting a ball and, as a princess, she was invited to join in on the pleasantries.

And since she really, obviously, didn’t like her friends, she invited them too. Yong, however, seemed excited. “Will there be food?” he asked.

Nuru nodded enthusiastically. “Oh the best food.”

He grabbed Varian’s sleeve. “Varian, we have to go!”

Hugo snorted to himself as Varian looked down uncomfortably. “I, uh, I don’t really like parties that much. Especially the ones that require socialization.”

“Varian, all parties require socialization.”

“Exactly.” He looked up at Nuru. “I didn’t even really attend my friends’ wedding. I asked specifically to be in charge of fireworks because I didn’t want to sit in a crowded church.”

Hugo remembered Varian mentioning that before. He had laughed at him then and now, he felt a little guilty laughing.

Just a little.

“Goggles,” he drawled, “are you that terrified of meeting new people?”

Varian locked eyes with him and Hugo took the time to admire how blue they were. “Yes.”

Nuru sighed. “Varian, please. I really don’t want to go alone. And plus, if you say yes, then Hugo will say yes.”

“He will?”

“I will?” This was news to Hugo.

“He agrees to everything that you agree to,” Nuru explained. “If you do it, he’ll do it.”

Varian bit his lip. “I don’t know…”

Yong pulled at Varian’s sleeve. “You don’t have to talk to anyone. You can hang out with me and Hugo by the snack table.”

Hugo saw Nuru’s lips purse but she said nothing. Varian smiled slightly. “Okay. But we don’t have any nice clothes.”

“Clearly,” Hugo said. Varian glared at him.

Nuru stood and Yong followed. “Well, we’ll visit a shop and have outfits made for you. I’ll need new clothes too. I don’t think this will cut it.” She gestured to her dress.

“I think it’s pretty,” Yong said. Nuru smiled at him.

Varian stood too. Hugo remained sitting, watching Varian closely. He still seemed uncomfortable. “Alright,” he agreed. “I could use some more clothes.”

The three of them look over at Hugo expectantly. He shrugged. “As long as you’re paying, princess.”

She threw a stick at him and Hugo laughed.

The group arrived in town and went into a nearby dress shop.

Hugo crinkled his nose. “Why are we at a dress shop, princess?”

“I need a dress. Plus, they don’t just sell dresses here. They have suits.” She makes a wide motion with her arm. “Go on, Hugo. Take Varian and look around.” She accompanied this last statement with a smirk. He glared.

Nuru knew that he liked Varian. Yong probably did too but Nuru most likely swore him to silence. Or she bribed him. Probably that.

Varian and Hugo initially only looked at dresses as a joke. Varian pulled a long, poofy, lacy hot pink dress off the rack and held it up to him. Even if Varian was to wear it, it would’ve been too long for him. It dragged on the floor. “How do I look?” he asked.

Hugo gave him a once over. “Beautiful. You’ll be the belle of the ball.”

Varian snorted and put the dress back. He pulled another one out, this one a bright yellow. “How about this?”

“It’s perfect. If you want to look like the sun.”

Varian laughed. “Maybe that’s the point.”

“You’re already hard enough to look at, hairstripe, don’t make it harder,” Hugo retorted. Varian shot him a warning look before he put the dress back on the rack. He looked at one that was actually very beautiful. It was a nice shade of turquoise with fine gold trim. “Wow. Do you think Nuru would like this?”

Hugo examined it. “No. She’s a purple kind of girl. Plus, I doubt she’d wear anything that doesn’t have stars on it.”

To his surprise, Varian didn’t argue. He continued to stare at the dress. “I like the colors,” he said. “I wonder if there’s something like this in a suit instead.”

“We do,” a voice said behind them. They turned to see a girl with long dirty blonde hair worn in a low ponytail and deep brown eyes with a tape measure draped on her shoulders like a scarf smiling at them. Well, not them. Just Varian.

Hugo felt something hot boiling in his stomach as he noticed the way she looked at him.

Varian smiled back. “Oh cool! I, uh, take it you work here?”

The girl nodded. “Yes. I’m Eleanor. You can call me Lenor. I’m the dress maker’s assistant. She’s currently helping out your friend. The princess, right?”

Was she eavesdropping on their conversation? Hugo scowled at her as Varian seemed to just blow past this. “Yeah, Princess Nuru. She’s actually why we’re here today. See, she was invited to a ball and she wants us to be her guests.”

Lenor’s eyes brightened. “You guys are going to the ball?”

“He just said that,” Hugo grumbled. Varian elbowed him. Lenor’s face soured slightly but she said nothing. “Anyway, we’re just here to get some nice clothes and then bounce. So if you don’t mind showing my friend here the suit so we can pay for it and leave, that would be great.”

“Hugo,” Varian hissed. “I’m sorry about him. Oh and uh, yeah, that’s Hugo. I’m Varian.”

“Nice to meet you Varian.” Lenor paused. “And uh, you too, Hugo.”

Hugo rolled his eyes. “Uh huh.”

Lenor pushed on, focusing only on Varian. “Anyway, I’d be happy showing you the suit. We have some in the back, I think. I just need your size.” She grinned deviously as she grabbed Varian’s arm and led him off. Hugo followed reluctantly. She better not try anything.

Varian stood on a stool as Lenor “measured” him. Hugo slouched in the background, arms crossed and pouting. Lenor certainly was making the most of this. She was currently scraping her arms over his chest under the guise of “measuring”, leaning in close so their cheeks practically collided. Hugo watched as she “tripped” and nearly knocked Varian off the stool. “Oops,” she giggled. “Sorry.”

Lucky for her, Varian was very nice. He just smiled and said, “Oh, no problem!”

Hugo made a noise. “Are we finished here?” he asked. He didn’t bother to keep the snark out of his voice. Lenor shot him a nasty look before pasting on her happy face again.

“Oh yes! But unfortunately, we are out of suits in your size.” She batted her eyelashes at Varian innocently. Hugo repressed the urge to gag. “However, if you come back here later, we can make one for you.”

“I wouldn’t want to be trouble…” Varian started but Lenor cut him off.

“No trouble at all.” She batted her eyes at him again. Hugo scowled. “How about you come by at around 5ish? I should be here.”

“Sure, sounds like a plan.”

Hugo decided to butt in. “Okay, Hairstripe, I think it’s time we headed out. Nuru’s giving us a dirty look from the other side of the store.” She wasn’t but he needed some excuse to pull Varian away. Varian smiled at Lenor apologetically and something inside Hugo simmered.

“I’ll see you at 5?” he asked her.

She grinned. “It’s a date.”

Varian waved and turned. “Nuru’s calling us over. Come on.” Huh. So she was eyeing them angrily. Convenient.

Instead of going with Varian, he and Lenor stared at each other, locked in a silent battle. “Look,” Lenor said. “I’m sure you’re his close friend and all. But it’s completely wrong to keep us apart when it’s so clear that we’re destined to be together.”

Hugo wrinkled his nose. “You just met.”

“Haven’t you heard of love at first sight, Herbert?”

Herbert? Oh she did not. “I have indeed, Luna, but I’ve been told that only fools rush in.”

Lenor rolled her eyes. This certainly wasn’t the nice, helpful girl she was just seconds ago. “Whatever. Just stay out of our way. Nothing will stop us from getting together and if you try, I will destroy you.”

Hugo eyed her. She hardly went up to his chest. “I’m terrified, Lexi. Now, I must go. My friend, Varian, is waiting for me.” He turned to leave but stopped and turned back around. With one hand, he did a cocky little wave at her. “See you at 5, babe?”

She gave him a rude gesture and he laughed and stalked off. Oh he was so accompanying Varian when he came back here. If only to annoy Lenor some more.

At 5, Varian and Hugo went back to the shop where Lenor was waiting eagerly at the door like a puppy waiting for their master.

“Hello, Varian!” she said. She gave Hugo a once over. “You.”

He looked at her coolly. “You.”

Varian, socially oblivious boy that he was, just started walking to the back of the store. Lenor mouthed, “I will destroy you.”

Hugo mouthed back, “I’d love to see you try.”

She made an “ugh” gesture and whipped around. “Are you ready for your fitting, Varian?” Her voice was annoyingly sweet.

Varian smiled at her. “Ready as I’ll ever be,” he said, albeit a little nervously. He sat on the stool. “So, uh, how, uh, how long will this take, Lenor?”

Varian wasn’t close to her but Hugo was and he heard her whisper, “As long as it takes to make you mine.” She pointedly glared at Hugo who scoffed.

“You don’t own him,” he whispered back.

“Neither do you,” she hissed.

“Uh, Lenor? Hugo?”

Varian was perched on the stool, adorably awkward. Lenor straightened and smoothed her skirt. “Right! Sorry, Vari.”

She was already giving him pet names? Not for the first time that day, Hugo’s nose wrinkled. That, her whispering, and the fact that she touched him excessively while “measuring” him set off warning lights in Hugo’s head.

Speaking of which, she was already touching him. Her measuring tape wasn’t even out. “Alright! I’ll get the fabric and be right back.” She flounced off to the backroom as Hugo made his way to the back and stood in front of Varian.

He gave a small smile to Hugo. “She seems nice.” He seemed uncertain.

Hugo shrugged. “She’s got energy,” he said.

Varian laughed. “Well, I mean, you aren’t wrong.”

Hugo felt himself smile. Just a little. “When have I ever been wrong, Goggles?”

Varian tapped his chin in false thought. “Hmmm, I wonder?”

Hugo lightly pushed Varian. “That was a rhetorical question.” Varian laughed again and it sounded like music.

“I’m back!” Hugo startled when he saw Lenor standing behind Varian, a bundle of fabric clutched in her hands. Her smile was wide and forced and when Varian turned back around, her stare was withering as she looked at Hugo. He raised his hands innocently. He did nothing. Was it a crime to talk to his friend/longtime crush?

Lenor set the cloth down. “Alright, Varian. I’m going to need you to change your clothes into this-” She held up a skin tight, plain white outfit that Hugo had seen people wear while they were getting fitted, so he gave her that. “-and then we’ll get started.”

Varian took it from her hestitantly. He looked at Hugo, a silent question passing between them. Hugo nodded in affirmation and Varian stood to go to the changing room.

“Where are you going?” Lenor asked.

Varian hesitated. “Uh, to change?”

Hugo butted in. “What, you want him to just strip here in the store?” He liked Varian too, but he accepted that a man must have his dignity. Lenor appropriately flushed and shook her head. Varian smiled appreciatively at Hugo and then rushed off to change. This left Hugo and Lenor alone, which wasn’t a very good idea.

“So,” he said.

“So,” she said.

“Is there a reason you’re obsessively touching him?” he asked.

Lenor blushed again. “It’s my job, Henry!”

Hugo scoffed again. “Your job should not require that much physical contact without a needle, cloth and/or measuring tape, Leandra.”

Her blush deepened. “Shut up.”

He crossed his arms. “I’m fine if you flirt with him.” That was a bit of a lie. “But refrain from being a creep, please and thank you.”

“I am not being a creep,” she snapped.

“Then stop touching him obsessively.”

Lenor huffed and then crossed her arms. “Fine. To prove that I’m not a creep, I won’t touch him for anything except my job. Happy?”

He smiled cheekily. “Thrilled.”

They were at a standstill again when Varian came back, face red at the tightness of the undergarments he was required to wear for his fitting. Hugo whistled. “Looking good, Hairstripe. Very ball ready.”

Varian glared at him and shoved his clothes at Hugo. Even though he wasn’t wearing his clothes, he looked extremely naked without his gloves and goggles. Hugo found himself looking for them subconsciously. “Can I not call you Goggles now?”

Varian shoved him, lightly. “Be quiet, Hugo.” But there was a slight lift to his lips. He went to stand on the stool, visibly uncomfortable. Lenor picked up the fabric and grinned.

“Alright! Let’s get started shall we?”

The fitting was rather uneventful. Hugo was mostly staring at the wall but was occasionally drawn to Varian and his nervous face. To calm him, Hugo gave a not helpful thumbs up which distracted Varian from the fitting by annoying him.

Finally, Lenor put down the needle and stepped back. “Okay. I think we’re about done here, Vari.”

Hugo looked up to see Varian, standing there in a turquoise suit with golden trim and a white dress shirt. It was just a suit but something about the color matching with the stripe of blue in Varian’s hair and the way it brought out the blue in Varian’s eyes made his jaw drop slightly. He picked it up before Varian noticed.

“Looking good,” he said again, this time serious.

Varian picked at his sleeve. Lenor batted his hand away. “Don’t do that,” she scolded but she sounded as in awe as Hugo was.

They were just clothes but somehow, Varian seemed… older. Handsomer. More confident, even as his expression was worried and anxious. He mustered up a somewhat happy expression that he aimed only at Hugo. “Really?”

Hugo nodded. “Now all you need is goggles and gloves and boom, you’re all set!”

Varian narrowed his eyes. “I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.”

Lenor clasped her hands. “Well, you’re all set. Just one thing.”

Hugo was immediately suspicious. “And what’s that?”

She gave him a nasty look before saying, “There’s a loose strand on the back of the suit. Now I would just do it now but it’s in a place that may hurt if I poke you. So I’ll take the suit, fix it and you can pick it up tomorrow?” Her face was innocent but her eyes were scheming.

And Varian just nodded in agreement. “Sounds good. Thank you, Lenor.”

She gushed at the compliment. “It’s my pleasure, Varian. Anything you need, just ask.”

Hugo exhaled loudly through his nose in frustration. “Right. Now, why don’t you change, Hairstripe, and we can head back to Nuru and Yong before they send out a search party.”

Varian changed and Lenor and Hugo got in a few extra glares before Varian and Hugo left. On their way out, Lenor called after them, “Noon, okay?”

Varian waved. “Noon it is!”

Hugo could see her smug look from 5 feet away. The door closed behind them and they were out in the town. Just the two of them. Hugo cleared his throat. “So, Hairstripe. What do you say we get dinner?”

This statement made Varian give Hugo a questioning look. “You want to buy something? Well that’s new.”

“Don’t insult me, I’m trying to be nice.”

Varian’s look was skeptical but he didn’t protest. He looked more like himself now, with the goggles pushed into his hair and his gloves that were stained with who knows what. Even though he looked amazing in the suit, he looked even better as himself.

The two went to a nearby shop where Varian ordered and Hugo paid. They made sure to get some food for Nuru and Yong so the two weren’t completely left out. However, they still sat at a table together and ate their food. It was pretty empty so there were a lot of tables around.

Through a mouth full of sandwich, Varian said, “You still need to get a suit, Hugo.”

Hugo picked out some tomato from his sandwich. “What, you’re saying this isn’t ball worthy, Hairstripe?” He gestured to his clothes, which were also slightly stained from an experiment. “I am insulted. Insulted, I say!”

Varian snort laughed and then choked a little on his sandwich. Swallowing, he said, “Come on. You know you like buying nice things. When we pick up my suit tomorrow, we’ll find one for you.”

Hugo disliked the idea of giving Lenor any more business, especially after Varian, Yong and Nuru (as Hugo predicted, she did buy a purple dress with stars on it) already bought from her. But then he reasoned that she didn’t own the store and she was an assistant. So he might as well.

Then he wondered why an assistant was doing a fitting instead of the owner of the store. He chewed his sandwich in thought.

Varian continued. “You’re the only one without a nice outfit. There must be something for you.”

Hugo raised a brow. “Nothing will make me look nicer than I already look.” He took another bite and winced as he tasted tomato. “Just get me something green and call it a day.”

Green was what Hugo wore everyday. Similar to how Varian wore blue, Nuru wore purple and Yong wore red. But Varian still looked him up and down and then leaned back in his chair. “I don’t know, Hugo. Green just isn’t your color.”

Hugo gasped. “Hairstripe! I am appalled!”

But Varian was laughing and his laughter was contagious and soon they found themselves laughing together in a sandwich shop.

Soon, they finished and headed back to where they were staying, Yong and Nuru’s sandwiches in tow. “In all seriousness,” Varian said suddenly, “I think you look pretty good in green.”

Surprised, Hugo turned and tried to read Varian’s expression. He was looking straight ahead, face purposefully blank.

Hugo couldn’t help the goofy grin that creeped its way onto his face. “And you,” he said, praying he had the boldness, “look decent in turquoise.”

Now Varian let that smile loose, the one that showed off his buckteeth that he admitted to be a little embarrassed about. “I’m an adult,” he had said to Hugo one day. “I shouldn’t have these. They’re not cute in adulthood.”

Hugo had paused and then replied, “I don’t know, Hairstripe. Adults beavers look pretty cute with them.”

Varian had thrown a stick or something at him that day but he could tell that Varian was feeling better about himself.

The two walked back together, both grinning to themselves. And Hugo didn't even mind getting yelled at about being late that much.

The next day, Varian and Hugo found themselves back at the dress shop.

Instead of going straight to Lenor, Varian dragged Hugo through the racks, searching for a suit for him. “This would go faster if you would help,” Varian said, annoyed, as Hugo stood, arms crossed, behind him.

“I’d love to, Hairstripe, but this really isn’t my thing.”

“Hugo!”

“Alright!” Just to make Varian happy, Hugo fake looked through the racks, barely skimming through the suits. He didn’t really want to go to the ball. He didn’t think he could stand seeing Varian looking like that for an entire night. But to make Varian and Nuru and possibly Yong happy, he decided to go along with them.

“Hey, what about this?” Varian asked. Hugo looked up, ready with a quip, when he stopped short. Because, dammit, the suit actually looked good. It was green with silver trim and a matching green tie with a crisp white shirt to go along with it. And the suit looked relatively shiny and nice, something that won Hugo over immediately.

He gingerly took it from Varian and, subtly, checked the price and the size. It was perfect. What diety came down and blessed him with this suit? How was the day going so right so far? This never happened.

“Vari!”

Oh wait. Nevermind.

Hugo’s face soured as he spotted Lenor bounding over to them like an overexcited horse seeing their rider. He noticed Varian’s face falter slightly too. “Hey, Lenor.”

She stopped right in front of him, nearly colliding with him. “I’m so glad to see you! You’re suit’s all done and in the back. Come on, I’ll show it to you!” Lenor led Varian and Hugo to the backroom where, low and behold, there sat the suit. “Tada! Do you like it?”

Varian nodded. “It’s amazing, Lenor. I’m impressed.”

Hugo folded the green suit over his arm, faking boredness. “Yes, well done, Luan. Now how’s about we pay for this and head out?”

Lenor made a face but Varian agreed and the three headed up to the register to pay. But before they could finish and leave, Lenor stopped them. “Hey, Vari, I saw you at the sandwich shop last night.”

Varian and Hugo both paused. “What? Really?” Varian asked.

She nodded. “Yes! I didn’t know you liked Kylian’s Sandwich Shop. Maybe we could go there sometime.”

“Oh, uh.” Varian fiddled with his gloves. “I’m sorry but I’m not sure I have the time, Lenor. I mean the ball is tonight and right after, we have to leave.”

Lenor sighed. “Oh the ball.” She sighed again, dramatically. Hugo eyed her skeptically. “I always wanted to go but, alas, a dress maker’s assistant would never get an invitation.”

Hugo saw where this was going but couldn’t get a word in before Varian said, “Well why don’t you come with us?”

Hugo was shaking his head no as Lenor lit up. “Oh really? You’d take me? Oh, Vari, that is so sweet!”

This time, Hugo did interrupt. “We’re going as a group, Lori. That means we’ll have to check to see if it’s okay with Nuru and Yong before you can actually go.”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine with it,” Varian said. Hugo shot him an annoyed look. Was he really doing this? Did he really want Lenor to come with them to the ball?

Lenor clasped her hands. “I would love to go, Vari. Why don’t you and, uh, your group come down and pick me up around a quarter to 7? That would give us enough time to get there.”

Varian nodded as Hugo put his face in his hands. “Sounds good. We’ll meet you there.”

On their way out, Hugo resisted the urge to scream at Varian. Did he seriously want a total stranger to come with them to the ball?

“Hairstripe,” he said through gritted teeth. “What the fuck?”

Varian stared straight forward. “I was being nice, Hugo. It’s not hard.”

“She’s a stranger! Who may have stalked yo-us. And you’re inviting her to the ball? Are you kidding?”

Varian stopped and sighed. “Look, Hugo, I know you two don’t like each other. But please, give her a bit of a chance.”

“What? Why?”

“I gave you a chance, didn’t I?” Varian reminded him. Hugo fell silent. Varian pressed on. “You stole the totem when we first met and you were a total stranger who ‘schmoozed’ his way into our group. But I still trusted you.”

“And you trust her?” Hugo asked.

Varian shrugged helplessly. “I… she reminds me a bit of me. She’s clearly not used to other people and I was just like her. I want to give her the chance to be our friend, Hugo. I want to give her the kindness I never received.” He looked up at Hugo, eyes big and blue and lovely. “Please let me give her that chance.”

Hugo bit his lip. As much as he didn’t like Lenor, as much as he didn’t trust her, he knew that Varian had a big heart and didn’t trust easy. So if he thought she could change and be better… “Okay, Hairstripe. But if she turns out to be a murderer…”

“I’ll know how to deal with it,” Varian finished. He smiled at Hugo and it was so kind that it melted his heart. “Thank you.”

Hugo shrugged and continued forward. “You did the same for me.”

“Are you boys ready?”

Yong stumbled out of the bathroom, tie undone and hair messy. Nuru sighed. “Honestly, Yong,” she said as she tied his tie for him.

Hugo was already dressed, tie done, hair slicked back, and jacket buttoned. Nuru looked at him with begrudging approval. “You look nice, Hugo.”

Nuru was wearing a long, elegant purple dress with star patterns on the bottom. She wore her signature clip in her hair, which she pulled back. “You look nice too, princess.”

She smoothed her dress. “Thank you. Now, we just need Varian.”

And speak of the devil, there he was, coming out of the bathroom with a hand shoved in his pocket awkwardly. He looked as he did in the store but nicer, what with his hair done and maybe something was done to his face too, because he looked radiant.

Hugo was staring. He knew it. And Varian was staring too.

“Uh,” Varian said. He cleared his throat. “I picked the right suit, huh?”

Hugo breathed a laugh. “Don’t give yourself too much credit, Hairstripe.” Then, kinder, he said, “You clean up good.”

There was a slight reddening to Varian’s cheeks. “You look good too, Hugo.”

They stood there, staring at each other for seemingly forever until Nuru clapped her hands. “Okay boys! We need to pick up Lenor and then to the ball.”

Varian was nervous about wrecking his suit but Nuru assured him that he couldn’t possibly ruin it in the 5 minutes it took to walk to the dress shop. When the entered, they saw Lenor with her hair braided wearing a seafoam dress with a bow around the waist. “You look nice, Lenor,” Varian said. Hugo pointedly adjusted his tie.

Lenor sighed breathily. “And you look amazing, Vari.”

Hugo caught Yong mouthing to Nuru, “Vari?” Nuru shrugged. Hugo coughed. “Shall we?” He locked eyes with Lenor, who provided him with an icy stare.

The walk to the castle surprisingly wasn’t very long either. Lenor talked to Varian the entire way, leaving Hugo with Nuru and Yong, both of whom were confused. Yong whispered to Hugo, “Is she Varian’s girlfriend?”

Hugo glanced over his shoulder to see Varian uncomfortably walking at Lenor’s side, eyes wide. “I’m guessing not.”

“Then why is she acting like it?”

Hugo shrugged and that was that.

The ball was bustling by the time they arrived and Nuru was immediately called on by the king and queen. She dragged Yong with her, claiming that he could distract them with his explosions when the conversation got boring.

That left Hugo, Varian and Lenor.

Immediately, Lenor was bugging Varian to dance, pulling at his arm and bouncing on her heels. “It’s tradition, Vari!”

“What a concept,” Hugo muttered. “Dancing at a ball.”

Lenor glowered at him. “Whatever.” She grabbed Varian’s arm firmly and dragged him off. “Come on! I’ll show you.” She ignored his protests and vanished into the crowd. Hugo watched as they went and then sighed.

Soon Yong was coming up to him, cheeks red with excitement. “What happened, kid?” Hugo asked.

Yong shrugged. “They sent me away. They said I was ‘too much’ for them.”

This cheered Hugo up and he suggested they hide at the snackbar while Nuru and Varian “socialized.”

An hour or so passed before Varian hobbled over to Hugo (Yong was taken away again by a desperately bored Nuru). “How’s your new girlfriend treating you?” Hugo drawled.

Varian rubbed his feet and groaned. “If I have to do another dance, I might actually keel over.” He looked up frantically as Lenor called his name from the crowd. “Hugo, quick.”

“What?” He didn’t have time to think before Varian was pulling him away, away from Lenor and Nuru and Yong and out of the ballroom. They had no idea where they were going and that was fine. They ran down corridors and hallways and soon they found themselves out on a balcony, staring out at a garden.

Hugo snorted at the sight. “Of course they have a garden.”

Varian leaned on the railing and closed his eyes. Hugo watched him. “You good, Hairstripe?”

“No,” Varian said immediately. “I’m tired and exhausted.”

“Pretty sure those are synonyms.”

“You know what I mean.” Varian rubbed his eyes. “Lenor has been dragging me around all night, dancing. I just want a break. I didn’t even want to come tonight. I just wanted to hang out with you.”

Hugo was surprised. “Me? Like just me or like with Yong?”

Varian shrugged. “You’re a pretty fun guy to be around Hugo. You know, when you’re not being pretentious.” Hugo laughed. “I’m serious. It’s nice to hang out with you. You’re funny and smart and you always seem to know what to say to make me feel better.”

Hugo leaned on the railing too. “I could say the same about you, Hairstripe. I mean, you did trust me enough to let me join your merry band of misfits.”

Varian cocked a brow. “Is that seriously what you call us?”

“What else would fit?”

Varian laughed and Hugo joined in. A comfortable silence fell on them. Varian broke it. “You know, the best part about these two days in this town was getting to hang out with you. I’m glad I chose to trust you, Hugo.” He looked up at him with those eyes. Hugo swallowed.

“And I’m glad you trusted me, Varian.”

Varian bit his lip. “I like you a lot, Hugo,” he continued. He brushed a stray hair from his face. “Like, a lot. I hope you know that.”

Hugo narrowed his eyes at Varian. “As a friend?” He needed clarification.

The look in Varian’s eyes was enough. “What do you think?”

Hugo swallowed again. “I think I like you a lot too, Varian.”

And the smile on his face was so bright it could’ve lit an entire town. Varian leaned in and Hugo was determined to meet him. They kissed, nice and sweet, with Varian’s hand resting on Hugo’s neck and Hugo’s arms around his waist. They broke apart for a second so Hugo could say, “You look beautiful tonight.”

“I do?” Varian sounded breathless.

“Yes. The belle of the ball.”

Varian giggled and closed the space between them again. They stayed like that until a voice said, “What?”

They broke apart and saw Lenor standing in the doorway, jaw practically to the floor. She was looking at Varian, then at Hugo, then at Varian again. Hugo was cool while Varian looked embarrassed.

An awkward silence passed between them before Varian cleared his throat. “Are you, uh, enjoying the ball?”

Hugo burst out laughing.

[varibean]

Try Turning It Off And On Again

This was my piece for the tangled dreams zine that can be found here! I wanted to try writing a bit of Team Awesome/Dadgene so I hope y’all enjoy and lmk what you think! 

Read On AO3

It was no small exaggeration to say that, on paper, Varian was living a near perfect life. It was hard to imagine the boy-or as his father so often called him, ‘young man’-wanting for anything and for the most part he didn’t. After the battle with Zhan Tiri and the terrifying day of the eclipse, all of his dreams had been practically handed to him on a silver platter. Royal Engineer, renowned alchemist, best friend to several important people; with all that under his belt it was hard to imagine him not being in a constant state of euphoria over how well his life was playing out. Especially after his rocky start.

However if someone was to catch him in the early hours of the morning, they would be led to think that nothing had ever gone right in the history of his entire life.

It wasn’t a fact of Varian not being a morning person that was the issue but rather the sheer number of things he had to do once he got up. Early on in his career as royal engineer, Rapunzel thought it to be a great idea that he live in the palace with them. He’d been excited about the prospect at first; getting to live close with his greatest friends? Spending his days working on machines? Winding down at night in the grand ballroom for dinner? Absolutely perfect.

What he hadn’t considered was the fact that, by living in the palace, he was essentially on the clock twenty-four seven. Every morning when he woke up he skipped his usual routine of combing his hair or brushing his teeth in favor of opening up his bedroom door. That action was always greeted with a pile of neatly placed but still numerous scrolls, all left behind by the morning castle page. Each one was either a task, request, or order form filed by any and all who needed his service. It was only after he picked them all up and read through them that he continued his other morning tasks.

Life at the castle was more boring than he’d ever considered life in a castle could be. The whole place worked like clockwork and not the fun kind. The only thing that broke up the monotony of the place was Rapunzel, with her always chipper nature, and Eugene, who often tagged along with her despite his own duties as Captain of the Guard. But even that small burst of excitement was becoming less and less as time went on. Less Rapunzel, less Eugene, more work.

When Varian first arrived, everything had been wonderful and new. The scrolls at his doorstep were exciting projects, not boring chores. He had time for his own inventions and endeavors no matter how small they were, and most importantly, he got to spend time with his friends. All of those things were slowly fading, dwindling in time and importance as his daily tasks grew and grew. When writing his father about it, the older man simply replied that it was all part of growing up. Varian hated that. Still, the days dragged on, the ever steady pace of the castle completely uncaring to his internal plight of drudgery.

____

It was on a day of heavy rain and wind when Varian got the notice that something was wrong with the boilers. Nothing major enough to cause an entire village to explode, he’d been sure to put that safety precaution in place, but enough to warrant a knock on his door as he was preparing for lunch. No ham sandwich break for him today.

Apparently some rainwater had managed to seep through the shallow earth and gotten into the underground reservoir used to fill the tankers, in turn causing them to overflow. It wasn’t the overflow that was causing any structural issues, the machines wouldn’t rust overnight after all, but it was causing an imbalance in the chemical reaction. Too much water meant there was more liquid than the chemicals could properly heat, leaving everyone with lukewarm water. Tragic.

Duty called though and lunch would have to wait.

“Lukewarm water. Oh”, Varian said sarcastically to Ruddiger as he prepared to go down and find the leaky bit of earth that was causing the problem, “The horror of it all.”

The people of Corona could survive a day or two without hot water, but why should they when they had a Royal Engineer at their disposal? Nevermind the fact that he was a person too, who was currently missing out on his meal so that everyone else could wash their hands in comfort.

He bit back the desire to spout out another sarcastic comment to his furry companion, knowing that he was just being unreasonably bitter because he was hungry. Food would still be there when he got done; the longer he ignored the problem the worse it would get. In all fairness, it took priority. Besides, something like sealing up a bit of loose earth and diverting the dripping water from the tankers would be an easy fix. He could do it in his sleep.

____

Varian had been correct in assuming that the boiler problem would be an easy fix, maybe slightly tedious at best. What he hadn’t accounted for was how difficult it would be to simply get down to the reservoirs in the first place.

The problems started the second he stepped out of his room and into the main hallways of the castle. Ruddiger trotted beside him happily, the fat animal knowing that his only job was companionship and nothing more. Given the time of day and the raininess outside the place was busier than it normally was. Gardeners muttered over their tools, maids rushed to clean up dirt and grime that had been tracked in, and all the other servants began to hustle and bustle around in order to make sure that everyone was safe and well attended to.

It shouldn’t have been a long trek, just a few turns before getting to the downstairs, but the trip was elongated by everyone constantly bumping into him and pushing him aside.

Despite being a respected member of the staff, he was still just a boy in many of their eyes. He glared at the people who brushed past him, knowing that he’d helped each one of them with at least half a dozen things at some point or another. They’d been perfectly kind to him then but now he was nothing more than another body blocking their way. It was easy to be nice to someone while they were doing something for you and even easier to ignore them when the time was over.

Half way through the crowd to his destination he felt a hand grip at his arm and turning around he was met with the stern face of a maid, face flushed with frustration.

“Excuse me young man, you’re the Royal Engineer correct?”

Her voice was twice as haughty as she looked, speaking as if she couldn’t believe that she had to stoop to the level of talking to him in the first place.

“Varian. Just Varian.” He didn’t have time to deal with whatever nonsense the woman needed him for even though he had a sneaking suspicion that he was about to be given no choice.

He was quickly proven right as the woman gave a soft huff and pulled him alongside her to whatever issue she needed fixed. For a moment he considered squirming out of her grasp or maybe telling her that he was busy but as nice as those both seemed he knew that it would only come back to bite him in one form or another. If he didn’t fix whatever problem she had now then he would have to do it later. He was already missing lunch, might as well make the most of things.

She all but shoved him into one of main rooms, where he was met with several maids and servants covered in dust and circled around one of his many machines.

Ah , he thought, That explains a lot.

“Your blasted machine blew up. How are we supposed to clean up dust when the device that you made to help does nothing but blow it back in our faces?” The woman huffed as she crossed her arms.

Varian would have rather been scolded by old lady Crowley than whoever this woman was. At least Crowley didn’t balk like a fish when she was angry.

“Have you tried turning it on and off again?” Varian tried to joke to lighten the mood, but was met with only a cold shoulder and a stifled chitter from Ruddiger.

Eugene or Rapunzel would’ve found it funny.

He signed while leaning down to the device and fixing it up with one very simple step: Flipping the switch from ‘blow’ to ‘suck’.

“Let me know if you have any actual problems with it ma’am. Sadly, even I can’t fix operator errors.”

He skittered out of the room before anyone could berate him for his mouth. He smirked to himself, thinking how funny one of his friends would find that line. That was only the beginning of his troubles though.

It seemed that every step he took towards the boilers, someone needed his assistance.

Nigel’s mechanical pen needed the ink chamber fixed, Hope needed the automatic laundry cart’s wheel to be tightened, one of the chefs needed more preservation chemicals to keep the food fresh until next week.

By the time he actually got to the door to the boiler room it was well past his lunch break, time slowly and steadily creeping towards dinner. Hours of helping crowds of people with their problems and all that just so he could get to the actual problem of the day.

But yet again, right when he was about to turn the knob on the door and enter the stairwell for the boilers at long last, another hand grasped at his arm.

“Hey there buddy-”

“For the sun’s sake I just need to fix one stupid problem!” Varian shouted, turning around to face the stranger who’d grabbed him only to find that it wasn’t a stranger at all.

Instead he was met with Eugene’s surprised and amused face looking down at him, red uniform dampened slightly from the outside rain and hair slicked back in an admittedly stylish fashion.

“Well hello to you too short stack.” Eugene’s response was met with a groan as Varain pushed in the door and began to descend into the underground area. “Rough day?”

“Not more than any other day here.”

“So I’ll take that as a yes. What’re you doing going to the boilers so late, it’s almost chow time kiddo. You know how your dad will chew us out if we don’t get you your three squares a day.”

Even with Eugene’s joking nature Varian could hear a bit of sincerity in his words. He couldn’t bear the thought of confessing that he hadn’t gotten a chance to eat lunch. Instead he just kept walking downwards, the other man following close behind with Ruddiger.

“The rain cracked through one of the underground tunnel walls, which has been causing the small reservoir down there to flow faster. It’s overfilling the machines which means the formula for heating them isn’t working and that means a bunch of people upset at me until I can fix it.”

“Well of course, can’t imagine what a tragedy it must be to go a full day with only lukewarm water.” Eugene’s tone was sarcastic, mimicking Varian’s earlier sentiments on the matter.

Despite the day he had, the alchemist laughed. Of course Eugene of all people would share his same sense of humor at the situation.

“It wouldn’t be so bad if people would just let me get down here in the first place.”

“Nah, they can’t make it too easy on you kiddo, that’ll just make you go soft.”

Another chuckle rang out against the walls. It was more than Varian had laughed in probably an entire week. Suddenly the task of fixing a leak didn’t seem so bad; having company helped and though he loved Ruddiger to pieces, there was only so much conversation that a single raccoon could have.

“So what do we have to do to fix it?” Eugene asked after the laughter had settled and the two made it to the bottom of the steps, leading to the underground tunnels.

“I’m just going to put some of my newest solution on the crack and up the Flynnolium for a few hours. That’ll give everything time to reset by morning and then I’ll adjust the Flynnolium solution release back down to four percent per tanker. And it’ll also give everyone else ample time to find something new to yell at me about.”

Though he spoke with a joking tone he could see the flash of concern that drifted over Eugene’s face, making him instantly regret saying anything at all. He didn’t want to appear ungrateful to the older man; he really did love his job even with the few pitfalls that came with it. His snark was nothing more than the result of a little stress. That’s what he told himself at least.

The rest of the walk was short and comfortably chatty, Eugene going on about his latest guard duties while Varian laughed and ribbed him on his work ethic. It was nice to finally get some time to talk to his friend again, Team Awesome. He almost didn’t want his work day to be finished but the fixes he needed to implement were easy; it had just taken him forever to get down to do them. Just as soon as the two (plus Ruddgier) had made it to the caves, they were back to the top of the staircase.

“Well kid,” Eugene started, “now that we’ve got that all done let’s go get some grub. Don’t want to keep everyone else waiting.”

Eugene began to walk in the direction of the dining hall but Varian stayed put. He was hungry, that much was for sure, but he’d spent all day around people. Being around them, fixing their problems, having them bump into him and squawk at him. It was nice to spend some time with just Eugene but an entire room full of more people...now that was something different entirely.

“Actually I still have some leftovers from lunch in my room.” By which, of course, he meant his entire lunch. “I’m not that hungry anyways so I think I’m going to pass tonight, tell everyone I said hi.”

“Are you sure? Heard there was going to be cookies tonight-”

“Yeah, don’t-don’t worry about me it’s just been...been a really long day.”

Varian mustered up his best smile and gave a thumbs up as he walked away before Eugene could say anything else.

It had been a nice reprieve from his regular day to day drudgery, but it was time to go to bed and start the whole process over again tomorrow.

____

When Varian woke up the next morning he wasn’t tired which was his first clue that something was wrong. He stretched and yawned, squinting as the sun shone brightly through his window which was the second clue.

The third, and by far the most obvious clue, came when he cleared his nose and sniffed a few times and was met with the scent of fresh ham and eggs. Turning to his night stand he saw a brilliantly decorated tray of toast, butter, and scrambled eggs with ham and tomato slices mixed in.

“What in the-oh shit!” Next to the delicious smelling breakfast was his alarm clock which had apparently not gone off despite having wound it up the night before, seeing how the time displayed on it read 11:12. He was late, beyond late. It was nearly noon, he would never hear the end of it. Not only that, but there was a bigger issue at hand.

“The Flynnolium!” He darted up out of bed, not even bothering to put on his work clothes or brush his hair.

He nearly tripped over his own feet trying to reach the door. When he opened it, however, he ran face first into a solid body, sending him reeling back from the impact.

“Well good morning there sleepy head. Man, you really must’ve been worn out to sleep that long huh? Any sweet dreams?” The voice was calm and teasing with just a hint of sincerity playing against the tone of a smile.

“Eugene!” Varian steadied himself and once again tried to get by him. “I can’t talk right now, I have to go. I overslept somehow and-and the Flynnolium has been set on high for too long, I need to get down there and-”

“Set it back to four percent per tanker? Already taken care of buddy. Now come on, I worked all morning on that breakfast and you haven’t even touched it. Well, the royal chef worked all morning on it but I was in the room so i’m pretty sure that counts for something. Supervising, you know, is a very important part of the process.”

“Wha…”

Varian couldn’t even finish his sentence as Eugene guided him back to his bed and sat him down, moving the breakfast tray onto his lap.

“Well don’t sit there wasting all that hard work, dig in.”

“But I don’t...I don’t understand how-what the hell is going on?”

“Language.” Eugene chidded jokingly before sitting down beside the other, “I noticed you seemed a little stressed yesterday. So, I took it upon myself to give you the day off. Woke up this morning and turned the Flynnolium down. Bribed Ruddiger with a few apples to get him to turn your clock off and let you sleep in.”

Varian looked down at the food in his lap, speechless. He hadn’t been that tired, had he?

“Why though?” He asked, quizzically picking up a slice of toast and slowly biting it.

“I just told you, you’re stressed. We’re Team Awesome and Team Awesome looks out for each other.”

Varian continued to crunch slowly and Eugene let out a soft sigh before putting his hand on the other’s back.

“I know the people here demand a lot from you. It would be a big adjustment for anyone just to exist around this place, let alone be the Royal Engineer. Doing projects every day, people only giving you the time of day when they need you, running around like Pascal chasing after a fly. And I know I...probably haven’t helped much in that regard either. You’re the Royal Engineer because Rapunzel and I know you can handle it. But just because you can handle it on your own doesn’t mean you should have to.”

The more Eugene spoke the more Varian relaxed, shoveling more food into his mouth as he got more comfortable.

“Fankfs.” He said, his cheeks full like chipmunks, causing Eugene to laugh.

“No problem buddy. Anyways, like I was saying, I’m sorry I haven’t been around as much-”

“That’s not your fault.”

“No, but it is my fault for not trying harder. And for not realizing how tough things have been on you. So, here’s the plan, once a week from now on you’re getting a full twenty-four hours of off time. Maybe after a few of those and we’ll finally have you back on a decent sleeping schedule. Anyone who interrupts it gets thrown in the dungeon, my royal decree as Captain.”

“I don’t think Captains can make royal decrees.” Varian stated flatly, suppressing a smirk.

“Ok smart mouth, well they can now. You have the rest of the day off.”

There was a comfortable silence for a moment as Varian finished eating, setting aside the tray and closing his eyes. He leaned against Eugene’s shoulder, content and full and happy.

“Thanks Eugene.”

“Anytime kiddo. Team Awesome?”

Eugene extended his fist and Varian happily, if not a bit tiredly, pounded it with his own.

“Team Awesome. Now, since I have the rest of the day off…” In a split second Varian was falling back against his bed, rolling himself up in the blankets pillows, “I’m going back to sleep.”

Eugene laughed and playfully shoved his shoulder.

“Lazy bones. Well, have sweet dreams. Sugar plum fairies and all that.”

“Nah, I’m going to be dreaming of cute blonds who look like Flynn Rider and take me on daring adventures.”

That caused Eugene to laugh even louder.

“Wow, you really are such a teenager aren’t you? Well tell dream hotshot that if he wants your fantasy hand in marriage he’s going to have to get through me first.”

“And my dad.” Varian joked bluntly.

“Personally I think I’m the more important one to impress but, yeah, that guy too-” Suddenly a pillow hit Eugene’s face, muffling his chuckles, “Ok ok I get the message, I’m leaving, I’m leaving.”

“Eugene?”

“Yes sleeping beauty?”

“Thanks, I needed this.”

“Any time kiddo. Love ya.”

As Eugene closed the door, Varian closed his eyes, sinking down into his mattress and into a day of blissful sleep.

“Love you too.”

By the time Varian got the drowsy words out, Eugene was already gone, but it didn’t matter. He already knew.

[sonicgetsrawed]

Don’t Forget to Remember Me

Here it is boyz! The WIP I shared the other day! Dedicated to my dearest friend @kairannosaurus-rex for inspiring me to actually finish it! You the best! Enjoy! 

It had been a terrible idea now that he thought about it. Just a small weekend trip in the mountains, not even that far from the main city of Corona, just enough to get away from the hustle and bustle of it all. Truthfully the trip had been nice, finally since the whole library debacle Hugo had some alone time with Donella to work through their odd new dynamic. It was his return when things had gone downhill. The day before he left Varian had insisted on taking care of the library by himself to allow Hugo ample time to get things in order for the weekend, he’d have never agreed if he knew that the younger would run himself into the ground taking on project after project until finally it blew up, quite literally, in his face on the first night of Hugo’s absence. He pissed when he learned, fully expecting to return to the loving embrace of his boyfriend ready to eat up the tales of their adventure, instead he was met by Rapunzel. Not that he had anything against the princess, soon to be queen, it just wasn’t what he was expecting. Then he was told about the accident and that’s when the anger hit. Why hadn’t he been informed sooner? He could’ve left his trip early. But that’s not what Varian would’ve wanted, Rapunzel had insisted, and fucking screw her for thinking she knew what Varian would’ve wanted. So he demanded to be shown to Varian, demanded to see him, demanded to be told the extent of the injuries, demanded to know what the fuck had happened. And then he saw him. In those too white sheets, in that too small bed, in that terrible loose hospital gown. Bandages wrapped around his head, arms, almost everywhere. His lip split, his right eye purple in a bruise, the deep gash over his left cheek. Nothing seemed to matter anymore as he rushed to Varian’s side, taking his hand in his as if to reassure himself that he was still alive.

Time had stopped, nothing seemed relevant anymore besides the steady drip of the IV fluids. It was a terrible sound, the dripping, the ticking of the clock, his own breathing and heartbeat in his ears. Not even the nurses voice could reach him in this void. No one could. All he knew were those sounds and the boy in the bed, the boy who hadn’t opened his eyes in weeks.

Then as suddenly as they had closed, they opened. Those lovely baby blues staring back at him for the first time in far too long. Hugo could hardly contain his excitement as he leapt out of his seat and pulled Varian into a tight hug. “Thank fuck you’re awake. You scared us so much, Goggles. You have no fucking idea I-“

It took him too long, too fucking long to realize there was no recognition in those eyes. There was nothing at all just a blank stare and furrowed brows. He tilted his head ever so slightly an action that used to be endearing but now shook him to his very core. “Who?”

And he couldn’t respond, couldn’t breathe all he could do was stare into those eyes. Stare into the nothingness there. Because this wasn’t his Varian this- this was, nothing.

He didn’t realize when he was pulled away, didn’t realize how he fought the nurses until his world was turning black. All he knew was the nothingness in Varian’s eyes, he was nothing in Varian’s eyes.

Hugo blinked, the stark white ceiling above him coming into focus. “What happened?” He asked, wasting no time in sitting up and swinging his feet over the side of the bed. He couldn’t waste any time Varian may not have recognized him, but he still needed him. His head was pounding, mind fuzzy as the last remnants of sleep wore off.

“You fought the nurses like a fucking idiot when they tried to tend to the boy. They had to sedate you.” Hugo rolled his eyes at Donella’s answer, of course as soon as they returned to Corona she would revert to her snarky attitude.

“Varian, his name is Varian. How many times do I have to tell you that?” Hugo hissed, moving passed her, determined to find out more about Varian’s condition.

“Regardless, he isn’t taking visitors.” Donella retorted, cutting Hugo off.

“Like hell. I’m his boyfriend-“

“Not to him, you're not.” Hugo froze at her words, Donella’s hand latching onto his forearm. He wasn’t sure if it was for support or to keep him from running to Varian’s side. Either way he hated the words that came from her mouth. “He has amnesia, th- Varian, doesn’t remember anything. Not the princess, not you, not his father, not even his own name.”

“Then I’ll make him remember.” He flinched at his own voice, the words coming off harsher and more threatening than he’d intended. The point still stood, he'd help Varian remember who he was, who they all were.

“You can’t force him to remember, he must do so on his own. If you force something like that it could damage him more.” Donella said, pulling Hugo’s arm so he was forced to stop his forward march.

“Then what do I do?” Hugo asked, his resolve cracking. Any fight he had breaking as the reality of the situation hit. He had lost a part of Varian, all of their memories together, all the hurt and the love they fought for gone. It was terrifying, what if he never remembered? Would he still love him?

“Just be patient, that’s all you can do. Have patience.”

*********************

“This is our room?” Varian asked, making his way around the room, running his hand along the bed as if it would help him remember. It had been a week since he’d woken up and nothing had changed. Today was his first day out of the infirmary and Rapunzel was positive getting him back in a more familiar environment would do wonders for his memory. Hugo wasn’t so certain. Varian jumped as Ruddiger rubbed up against his legs. “Does it always do that?”

Hugo picked up Ruddiger, the raccoon easily settling on his shoulders with a sad chitter. “He does. He is your raccoon.”

“Oh, right. Sorry.” Varian mumbled, awkwardly standing in the middle of the room. His eyes darting to the single bed. Hugo knew immediately what was going through his mind.

“Don’t worry about sharing a room. Rapunzel is setting me up next door.” Hugo said with a sigh. He was trying his best to be patient but it was hard when nothing seemed to jog his memories. He had to keep reminding himself it had only been a week, he just needed more time. Until then he would be sleeping in the other room with Ruddiger.

****************

He was exhausted, so fucking exhausted. He’d been running the library and managing the royal engineer duties for a month. Quirin and Donella were helping as much as they could, but even then he seemed to be swamped. Even when he wasn’t working he spent most of his time with Varian. They usually didn’t say much, just sat in the castle library and read. It was peaceful, but he missed their conversations, the odd ticks Varian had when he got particularly excited about something, the small snort that wiggled its way into his laugh sometimes, he missed Varian. Unfortunately he still didn’t remember much, no matter what they tried nothing seemed to work. He was quickly losing hope that the Varian he knew would ever return. Not that there was anything wrong with the way Varian was now, it was just different. He just needed a moment of peace away from it all, five minutes completely to himself.

He quickly made his way up to the roof of one of the towers of the castle. Since the rooster had been dismantled he’d often escape up here with Varian when they needed a moment away from the hustle and bustle of the castle. Hugo easily made his way out onto the roof, startling slightly when he saw Varian already sitting there, the wind blowing in his hair as he sketched in his notebook. He smiled softly at the familiar sight. Varian’s tongue poking out as he concentrated on whatever he was working on. Hugo quietly made his way over, sitting down next to him as he stared at the younger, who had yet to acknowledge his presence. “Whatcha working on, Goggles?”

Varian wrinkled his nose at the nickname, but didn’t say anything about it. He supposed the name didn’t make sense when he’d been without his goggles since he’d woken up. “The princess, uh-“

“Rapunzel.” Hugo supplied, he hated how since the accident he seemed to be struggling to retain information, it was concerning and something the doctors had been looking into.

“Right, Rapunzel, said I should try keeping a journal, write down whatever I remember in it.” Varian explained, blowing his hair out of his face as he finally looked up at Hugo. “I don’t think it’s working. Nothing seems to be working. Everyone is trying so hard and I just- Hugh, I can't remember anything.”

Hugo pulled him close, letting the younger cry frustrated tears into his chest, his shirt sticking to his skin the more he cried. “It’s okay, you’ll get there eventually.”

Varian laughed bitterly. “I don’t want to get there eventually. I want to be okay, I want people to stop tiptoeing around me. I want to be able to laugh at inside jokes I used to know, to remember the silly stupid things, the little things that used to irritate me. I want to be me again.”

Hugo gently cupped his face, moving the stray hairs out of Varian’s eyes. “Give yourself time. This was a pretty serious injury. I think you remember more than you think, so give yourself a little credit.”

“I do?” Varian asked through his sniffles, wiping his tears away on the back of his sleeve.

Hugo nodded, smiling lightly at his boyfriend. “I think so. Why did you come up here? Or call me Hugh? You didn’t call me that until we started dating. And this place, you’d always come up here when you needed a break, specifically from-“

“Rapunzel.” Varian finished, a slight smile working its way onto his lips.

“Exactly.” Hugo said, gently poking Varian’s nose, earning him a small laugh.

“Thank you. You’ve been amazing through all of this.” Hugo didn’t get to respond, Varian closing the distance between them and bringing their lips together. It was a wonderful feeling, to finally be able to kiss him after months of not. And as much as he’d love to devour him then and there, he let Varian set the pace, keeping the kiss short and sweet. Until Varian finally broke it. “I’m sorry, that must’ve been really weird for you. I know I’m not exactly the same person you fell in love with-“

Hugo cut him off with another kiss, this one more passionate, more needy. “I will love any version of you, in any universe. I love you, Varian, and just because you don’t remember our time together doesn’t change that fact. We’ll just have to make new memories, better ones.”

“I’d like that.” Varian claimed his lips once again, Hugo wrapping his arms around him and pulling him as close as possible. It would take a lot of work to get to where they had been, but he was going to make sure they got there. And when they did he’d make sure those memories were ones Varian would never be able to forget.

[justaghostingon]

Steel Hooks in a Trusting Heart

In which Cyrus finds himself once again aiding Hugo in his schemes, this time to the purpose of helping Hugo win over his boyfriend’s family. There’s just one problem. Cyrus isn’t so certain he approves of this Varian guy Hugo’s dating.

Read on ao3 here https://archiveofourown.org/works/25996633

Or below the cut

Cyrus had not known what to expect when Hugo had roped him into a security job at the eternal library. For the most part, it had been an improvement. Sure, the job was pretty boring, not many people had been exactly eager to go into the formerly cursed library after its last human patron had been trapped inside. But it was getting better, thanks in large part to its two alchemists and Corona’s very friendly Queen. Seriously, that woman didn’t act like a noble at all. Cyrus half believed the rumors that she was some kind of sun goddess that had fallen from the sky. She was kind enough for it, and the sun never cared much for rich or poor. He did wish she’d stop jumping out of nowhere to say hello though, it was a bit unsettling.

And speaking of jump scares, Cyrus had grown to discover that this library was in fact inhabited by some sort of fae. She was a beautiful creature, if incredibly shy, always hiding when Cyrus moved to close, but Cyrus would catch her watching him out of the corner of his eye. He and Mona weren’t sure what kind of fae she was, but Mona had helped him recreate a few of the offerings from his grandpa’s stories, just in case.

Today’s offering was a plate of honey cookies and milk, but it was facing a serious challenge in the face of one of the most unexpected parts of his new job: Hugo.

“It’s just so frustrating!” Hugo sighed as he swiped a cookie from the plate of fresh honey cookies and sank into a chair. Cyrus scowled across at him.

It's not that Cyrus wasn’t expecting to see Hugo in his new job. But the library was vast, full of ancient scrolls to study and reluctant patrons to convince that this place wasn’t going to kill them. Cyrus, with his position at the entrance hall, had expected to see the alchemist maybe a handful of times as he welcomed the patrons for tours, and that would be it. For the most part, he was correct.

So no one was more surprised than Cyrus when Hugo had come down the first day, thrown himself dramatically in one of the chairs at the entrance hall, and started ranting about some annoying thing someone called Flynn Rider had done. At first he’d thought it was a one time thing, but no, Hugo continued to seek out his company every few days or so, to rant about all the people he was inevitably forced to work with in this new city.

It was nice, Cyrus supposed, to have someone from his own country here to talk to. If Hugo could behave. Cyrus pulled the plate of cookies away from Hugo as he went for another one. “Those aren’t for you,” he grunted.

Hugo rolled his eyes  “Are you still going on about that magic library fairy or whatever?” He licked the crumbs off his fingers as he continued. “She’s not real Cyrus, grow up and give the cookies to me.”

Cyrus grunted, pulling the honey cookies closer to himself. Behind Hugo, Cyrus could see a silver head peak over the edge of the bookshelf. “Still not yours,” he grumbled. “If you want cookies, come by the house and ask Mona.”

“Fine, be that way,” Hugo pouted, and behind him Cyrus saw the silver haired fae stick her tongue at Hugo’s back. “Just add to my burden, why don’t you?” Hugo sighed dramatically.

He wants me to ask doesn’t he? Cyrus thought as he held back a sigh of his own. “What happened this time?” he said.

“Oh it's terrible!” Hugo perked up, placing his feet back on the ground as he leaned forward to whisper theatrically at Cyrus. “Varian’s dad invited me on a fishing trip!”

Cyrus raised an eyebrow. “I don’t see the problem,” he said.

“Uh, Varian's Dad, remember?” Hugo crossed his arms. “Hates me? Thinks I’m not good enough for his son? I told you about him last week!” Hugo adds with a note of hurt in his voice.

Cyrus traded a look with the silver haired fae. She shrugged, and Cyrus figured she’d not be any help with this human affair. He pressed his fists together. “He invited you out fishing though, isn’t that a sign of progress? He’s giving you a chance.” Which was a pretty impressive turn around, considering the first impressions Hugo usually made.

“No, no, no!” Hugo shook his head, and Cyrus realized he must have missed something. “This is obviously a trap! He invited me fishing, so he can get me alone and make me look like a fool in front of Varian!”

If looking like a fool is enough to get Varian to stop dating you, you really shouldn’t be dating him, Cyrus didn’t say. Hugo seemed to sense it anyways, and he stretched out on the table, face burying in his arms.

“I just, really want him to think well of me,” he murmured, “especially after I messed up so badly.”

“You traitor!” Hugo flinched as Varian stalked towards him, teeth bared like a wild animal and eyes blazing with blue fire.

Cyrus’s gut twists at the memory, an old dread seeping over him. He didn’t think that was what Hugo meant exactly, but still. “I’ll go with you,” he stated. If Hugo had even the slightest fear of the dark side of his boyfriend appearing, then there was no way Cyrus was letting him go alone.

“Really?” Hugo beamed, all traces of earlier melancholy gone. “Excellent! I’ll meet you and Mona by the city gates at 9 am!” He bounced away, passing directly under the silver haired fan’s bookshelf. She ducked out of sight, but she needn’t have bothered. Hugo was too caught up in his own little world to notice.

Cyrus sat still at the table for a little while longer, dark thoughts swirling as he contemplated the trip and the dangerous opponents they'd have to face. The silver haired fae appeared beside the bookshelf, a frown on her face.

“He’s manipulating you,” her voice was flat as she crossed her arms.

“Not really,” Cyrus suppressed a smile, something about her posture reminded him of a jealous child tattling on a sibling. “But he probably thinks he is.” He held out one of the honey cookies. “Cookie?”

The silver fae hesitated for a second, before vanishing back behind the bookshelf. But that was fine, Cyrus shrugged as he pushed the cookies and milk into the middle of the table and pretended very hard to ignore it. Trust took time. She’d spoken today, and he would enjoy that victory for now.

--------------

“Do you think we’ll need more food?” Mona asked anxiously, hauling a truly enormous picnic basket into the air.

Cyrus grunted as he picked it up from where she was struggling. Mona gave a visible sigh of relief as the weight was lifted. Cyrus raised an eyebrow at her, and she blushed.

“Ok, ok, so it might be a bit much,” she gave Cyrus a sheepish smile as she straightened her good handkerchief on her head once more. “But you know how much you men eat!”

Cyrus shrugged, conceding the point. Men did eat a lot, especially growing boys. Speaking of which...

“There you two are!” Hugo appeared between them, seemingly materializing out of thin air. Both Mona and Cyrus jumped. And Cyrus allowed a slight scowl to cross his lips. Hugo had gotten sneakier and Cyrus did not appreciate it.

Hugo ignored Cyrus’s obvious annoyance in favor of slapping him heartily on the back, a wide, performative grin on his face. “Quirin! Varcakes! I invited my Aunt and Uncle along, since this is supposed to be a family outing. I hope you don’t mind!”

Cyrus followed his line of sight to see Varian walking with the man Cyrus presumed was Quirin. Cyrus straightened, rolling his shoulders back as he sized up this new opponent. Quirin was a large man, with tough, sun weathered skin that spoke to years of hard labor, like the farmer Hugo had described should have. But Cyrus wasn’t fooled. He saw the way the man held himself, back straight and feet planted firm, the way his eyes moved, both sizing up Mona and Cyrus and flickering to everything else that passed in the market. This was a warrior, and no amount of years in the farm and field could change that.

If it came to a fight, this man would be a difficult opponent, Cyrus reluctantly admitted. He could even give Cyrus a run for his money. But he was hardly the most dangerous one here. His eyes turned to Varian, and narrowed.

Varian winced, and Quirin frowned, rolling his shoulders and moving like he was going to step forward, but Mona got there first.

“How nice to meet you!” She flashed her most winning smile, the one she reserved for new neighbors and particularly grumpy children. Quirin’s attention snapped to her, clearly started, and Cyrus surpassed a grin. No one could stand up to her charms. She was Team Hugo’s secret weapon.

Quirin recovered quickly, and gave a slight bow. “A pleasure to meet you my lady,” he said, and Mona gave a nervous giggle from behind a hand, unsure of how to react to a term like “lady.” Cyrus privately wondered what Quirin’s problem with Hugo was, they should be able to bond over their shared love of theatrics.

“Dad!” Varian gave a squeak. He shot Cyrus and Hugo an apologetic smile as he rubbed his neck awkwardly. Cyrus drew his brows together and Varian turned away. “It’s nice to see you again Mona,” he offered.

“Oh darling I told you to call me Auntie!” Mona waved her hand, having recovered from Quirin’s theatrical attack to counterattack by reminding him of her acquaintanceship with Varian. Quirin turned his attention to Mona, but it was too late. Mona went in for the killing blow, “It’s been so long since you came over for dinner!”

Ha! Cyrus wanted to laugh, that was his wife! Winning the battle before it had even had a chance to begin. Now Quirin knew his son was close to Hugo’s family, and would have to be on good behavior so as not to embarrass Varian. Pride welled in his stomach as he fought back a smile. Mona had such a way with words.

But not everyone was as gifted as his wife. “Well, now we’re all acquainted,” Hugo said, linking his arm with Varian’s and Cyrus could see Quirin’s temper rise as all of Mona’s hard work began to lose its hold. “Let’s get going, we’ve fish to catch!” He pulled Varian up ahead, leaving the three adults to hurry after them.

“After you!” Mona smiled at Quirin, attempting to soften Hugo’s rudeness.

“Oh no, after you, my lady,” Quirin waved a hand like a butler welcoming a noble to her palace. Mona shot Cyrus a wink as she slipped her arm in his, and led him down the path.

-------------

The walk itself was mainly uneventful. Mona did her best to keep Quirin distracted, asking about the farm, the weather, whatever normal topics she could think of to get him talking and keep his attention off of Hugo. Cyrus tried to help, but he wasn’t nearly as good at small talk as his wife. His topics of conversation that seemed “normal” usually amounted to talking work, and given his primary work was with Hugo, he had to scramble to try and find something else. Eventually he landed on grunting in agreement with whatever Mona said.

Hugo was not helping at all, practically strolling along with his arm linked with Varian’s and occasionally stopping to point out some plant or animal and remark its proper latin name, which he thought made him look cool. But to Cyrus, who knew Hugo hadn’t known anything about wildlife until he’d spent the first three days reading through books on the subject to learn the context of Varian’s ‘simple peasant life,’ it just looked over done. Like he was trying too hard.

Cyrus knew Hugo was in love with Varian, a man doesn’t turn on a steady wage and a roof over his head for anything less than true love, romantic or otherwise. But he privately wished Hugo would relax a bit more, instead of trying to impress all the time.

Case and point, A leaf fell in Varian’s hair, and Hugo gave a gasp, pointing out how something with a big fancy sounding name was stuck in Varian’s hair. Varian freaked out, raising both hands to brush it off, only to see a leaf tumble down. Hugo gave a laugh and Varian’s eyes narrowed. Cyrus’s blood ran cold.

“I trusted you!” Varian snarls, spit flying into Hugo’s face. But Hugo is ashen and shaking, and doesn’t respond.

Varian reached a hand up, and Cyrus tensed, ready to run to Hugo’s aid. This time he would not freeze. But Varian gave Hugo a light shove. Hugo dipped away, laughing, while Varian glanced back at the three adults behind them. Their eyes met and Varian flinched, ducking close to Hugo to whisper in his ear.

“What?” Hugo said loudly, eyebrows rising in comical surprise. “No no! Of course Cyrus likes you.” He waved a hand back at Cyrus. “That’s just his face. He always looks like that.”

Mona and Quirin both sent Cyrus sharp looks, but Cyrus ignored them in favor of Hugo’s expectant face. He couldn’t let him down now. “I have a very scary face,” he admitted through gritted teeth, and Hugo beamed.

“There you go then,” he pulled Varian closer and gave a stage whisper into his ear. “It’s actually a problem, he’s lucky we took him in, or it would have been forced to work at the circus.”

“I’m pretty sure the circus would have been more exciting,” Varian rolled his eyes, and Quirin’s attention turned back to his son, seemingly appeased.

But Mona’s gaze lingered, biting her lip as she followed Cyrus’s gaze to Varian. She glanced up at Cyrus with a look that clearly says, “we’re going to talk about this,” and Cyrus felt the upcoming dread that only married couples know.

Sure enough, when they reached the lake, Mona gave a theatrical gasp and threw a hand over her mouth. “Oh no!”

Cyrus snapped to attention, senses overstimulating as he searched for the threat. He glanced quickly around to see what had set her off, but there was nothing dangerous in the immediate vicinity with the exception of Varian, and he was clearly as confused as Cyrus.

“I forgot desert!” Mona cried, and Cyrus felt himself marginally relax. Okay, nothing to fight. Unless she wanted him to hunt down a fairy and wish for desert. He shot the trees a glance, wondering if there were any a fairy might like to hide in. He wished he’d brought the honey cookies for bait. Then again, if they had honey cookies, they wouldn’t need a fairy.

“Don’t worry about it,” Quirin smiled. “We’ll be fine without it.”

“No! No!” Mona shook her head. “I saw some blackberries back there, I’ll just go and pick some while you boys get the boats out.” She extended a hand to Cyrus with a smile that made Cyrus break out in a cold sweat. “Cyrus dear?”

She used “dear” he was definitely in trouble.

“I could help too,” Varian offered, and in that minute Cyrus would almost have appreciated the rescue even if it came from him, but Mona waved Varian away. “We’ll be fine. Besides,” she shot Varian a wink. “You know how to set up a boat, and don’t you want to show Hugo how its done?” Varian and Hugo’s cheeks both flamed red, and Cyrus would have found it amusing if he didn’t know his doom was upon him.

Mona linked their arms and dragged him back towards the path and out of ear shot. She stopped in front of a blackberry bush and began to pick them. For one, glorious moment Cyrus thought they really were just here to get the desert, when Mona said, “You don’t approve of Varian.” It was not a question.

“It’s not my place,” Cyrus shifted uncomfortably. Because it really wasn’t. He wasn’t like Quirin. Hugo wasn’t his son. He could listen to his complaints sure, but he could hardly comment, or risk losing whatever fragile bond they had developed.

Mona snorted. “So you’re just going to glare at Varian all day?” she said, clearly seeing the issue and not at all agreeing with Cyrus’s method of disapproval.

Cyrus turned his head away, pulling a few more berries from the bush as he stayed stubbornly silent, not wanting to admit that yes, glaring was very childish.

Mona let out a sigh. “Could you tell me why you don’t approve?” Her voice was tired as she placed the blackberries she’d pulled free in an open jar.

Cyrus bit his lip. Why didn’t he approve? He hadn’t always, he’d helped Hugo leave to go with Varian and his friends after all. He’d seen how much these people meant to Hugo, and that they had been willing to fight Cyrus for him, and that had been enough. But then Donella had dragged him to the library, and it all went south.

“The library.” Cyrus struggled to put it into words. “When Donella revealed Hugo used to work for her, Varian got angry.” Angry didn’t even begin to describe it. The others had been angry, but Varian? He’d been so much worse.  “Really angry,” he added.

“I take it Hugo forgot to mention that detail earlier?” Mona asked dryly.

Cyrus shrugged. Because he knew that their anger was justified. It was Hugo after all. He was terrible at expressing his emotions, and although Cyrus knew how much it had taken him to leave, he was also absolutely certain Hugo did not explain this to Varian or the others. But then again...

“It's not just the anger, it was something more. The look in his eyes..” Cyrus shook his head, unable to put it into words.

Cyrus took half a step towards Hugo’s trembling form, but a single look from Varian froze him in his tracks. It wasn’t a look of heartbreak or a caged animal like he’d expected. No. It was a look that Cyrus had only seen a few times, in men so unhinged even the guild refused to lend them thugs. The look of a man who would burn the whole world to the ground to kill a single man.

In the second their eyes were locked, Cyrus felt all the air in the room sucked out as the agonizing aura of fear overpowered him. Then Varian turned his head and stomped into the library, ending the moment.

Cyrus gasped with relief as the portal shut behind Varian’s retreating back. Donella was swearing, but Cyrus only felt gratitude to whatever being out there watched over thugs. He knew if Varian had chosen to attack all three of them would have died, alchemic genius and brute strength be damned.  

Mona placed a gentle hand on Cyrus’s cheek, grounding him back to reality. Her face creased with concern as she asked, “Did he do anything to you or Hugo?”

Cyrus shook his head. “He just left.” Mona breathed a sigh of relief.

“Okay,” she said. “So he scared you, and that’s no easy feat. But Cyrus,” she bit her lip, “he didn’t actually do anything. Right?” Cyrus grimaced, but Mona stopped him with a look. “No Cyrus, that’s important. When it comes down to it. He didn’t hurt Hugo, and he didn’t hurt you.”

She was right, Cyrus begrudgingly admitted to himself. But somehow the thought didn’t make him feel any better.

Mona sighed, leaning forward until her weight shifted half onto Cyrus in a slight hug. “He reminded me a bit of myself you know,” she mumbled into Cyrus’s shoulder.

“Impossible,” Cyrus said, Mona was nowhere near as terrifying as Varian had been. Except for when he walked muddy boots onto her nice clean floors one to many times, or when she saw those bruises on the neighbor kid, or... He shook his head to stop that train of thought.

“He was so eager to please,” Mona continued, “and afraid to be a burden. He helped me in the kitchen, when even Hugo didn’t think to.” And Cyrus remembered she’d mentioned that before.

Mona tilted her head up to look him in the eye. “You’ve only seen him at his worst Cyrus, but today? It's an opportunity! We can both watch how he interacts with Hugo, and see how he behaves day to day. And besides,” she gave him a wry grin, “if all he did at his worst was lock himself away, I’d say Hugo’s in pretty good hands.”

Cyrus’s shoulders sagged as he realized he’d been beaten once again. “Fine,” he grunted. “I’ll try to keep an open mind.”

“Thank you darling!” Mona stood on her tiptoes to kiss him on the nose. Cyrus blushed, and pulled her close.

“What is taking you so long?!” Hugo shouted down the path and they hastily broke apart.

------------

Two seconds on the boat led Cyrus to realize two things that were very important. The first was that he knew absolutely nothing about fishing. He gazed over the strange rods with wires and hooks and vaguely horrid smell of canned sardines with complete confusion.

“Here,” Quirin pushed a fishing rod into Cyrus’ hands. “Can you string your own line?”

Cyrus’ hand automatically closed over the rod, and Quirin took this to mean he knew what he was doing and turned to offer a rod to Mona and Hugo. Cyrus blinked blankly down at the pole in his hands, wondering what he was supposed to do now. He glanced at Hugo and Mona, but they seemed equally lost.

Quirin completed handing out the rods and turned his attention to his own, hands moving in quick, easy motions as he wove the line through the hoops. Cyrus couldn’t catch all the details, but it seemed simple enough. He turned his attention to his own rod.

Carefully, he put the string through the first little ring. There. He stopped to admire his work. That wasn’t so hard. The string promptly slipped out of the little ring, and Cyrus realized this was going to take a while.

He threaded the little ring again, then the next and the next. He glanced at Quirin’s but found it still didn’t look right. Perhaps he was supposed to loop it? Yeah, so it could catch fish. He was pretty sure that was right. He tried looping the next ring, but it only succeeded in making it harder for the string to move. He tried to undo it, but found it had knotted. Oh no. He gave the string a sharp tug, but that only seemed to make a larger knot.

“Do you need a hand?” Varian offered and Cyrus nearly jumped out of his skin as he found the boy leaning over him, blue eyes wide. He looked the picture of innocence, but Cyrus could barely suppress the shutter that seemed to fill him as Varian blocked out the warmth of the sun. Beside him Mona leaned close, either as a comfort or a warning to behave.

“Yeah Cyrus, do you need a hand?” Hugo gave a mocking call, highlighting the second thing Cyrus had realized: that Hugo set him up to fail. Hugo didn’t know anything about fishing, so he’d invited Cyrus and Mona along to make even bigger fools of themselves and in turn make Hugo look like less of an idiot in front of Varian and his father. It was actually quite clever. Cyrus just wished he’d been up front about it so Cyrus would have had a better game plan.

“I’ll be fine,” Cyrus grunted, and Varian’s face fell. Cyrus braced for the worst, but nothing happened except for the biggest puppy dog eyes Cyrus had ever seen on a grown man. Mona frowned at him, and Cyrus held back a sigh. He had promised he would try.

“Why don’t you help Hugo instead,” he said as a sort of peace offering, pointing to Hugo’s own unstrung rod. Hugo scowled at him, clearly not happy at Cyrus for redirecting everyone’s attention to his own failings. Cyrus raised an eyebrow in response as Varian hurried to Hugo’s side. Hugo was getting the attention he clearly craved, so who was he to complain? And besides, it served him right for not being upfront about the whole thing.

Quirin’s eyebrows knit together as he watched Varian calmly instruct Hugo in how to thread the fishing rod. No doubt he was wondering if Hugo was really as clueless as his uncle, or just pretending to have Varian’s full attention.

Cyrus used the time to quietly cut his line out of its knots and castaway the smaller bits. He glanced back up to see if anyone had noticed, to find Mona watching him with an amused grin.

Cyrus blushed and turned his attention hurriedly to Varian and Hugo. Varian really was being very patient with him. He was snarking Hugo sure, but Cyrus could see his hands moving gently against Hugo’s as he directed him to the proper movements. Hugo’s lips quirked up, and Cyrus knew he was enjoying himself.

Mona gave Cyrus a slight nudge to say, see what I mean? And Cyrus hunched his shoulders. Because yes, he could see what she meant. A point to Varian. But one point wasn’t enough to stand against the thousand points he’d lost at the Library.

“Would you like some help Auntie?” Varian offered as he finished up with Hugo, a warm smile on his lips.

“I would love some help,” Mona smiled, and nudged Cyrus again to signal he should ask. Cyrus very deliberately did not ask, and she shot him a pout over Varian’s shoulder before turning her attention fully to the rod beneath her fingertips.

Varian began to speak, explaining in simple words what each of the rings were and the loopy thing, and how the rod was supposed to be strung like it was a needle. Mona listened attentively, and carefully moved to do as he asked.

Varian seemed to be speaking a bit louder than he was technically needed to, but Cyrus didn’t say anything. Instead he carefully moved his hands to follow the instructions without bringing any attention to it at all.

That’s two more points, he begrudgingly admitted to himself as he held up the finished rod. Three if he counted the way Varian had tried to shield his ego.

Maybe there was hope for him after all.

--------------

Fishing, it turned out, involved a lot of sitting around in the boat, waiting for a fish to catch on their lines. Which also led to a lot of room for conversation. Cyrus was beginning to see why Hugo had wanted him and Mona here, and not just to make him look like less of a fool. He’d also wanted two human shields to help prevent the one-sided interrogation that Quirin kept trying to start.

Mona and Cyrus did their best, but Quirin had the determination of a man who wants to stop his son from doing something very stupid. He kept pushing, and there was only so much about Hugo’s personal life they could believably answer.

“So Hugo,” Quirin smiled as he began his 45th question, “how are you adjusting to working at the eternal library?” As far as his questions went, this one was actually quite simple, clearly meant to ease the annoyed looks that Varian was shooting him. But the simple mention of the library in such a tense situation made the hairs on Cyrus’ neck stand on edge.

“Lovely,” Hugo waved a hand. “I have more knowledge than I could ever dream and the perfect partner to discover it all with.” He shot Varian a dopey smile, and the other boy blushed.

“Cyrus works there too!” Mona happily reminded them all, no doubt hoping to redirect the growing frown on Quirin’s face as Hugo leaned closer into Varian’s personal space. Help! her expression said.

Quirin turned to look at Cyrus with interest. “You do?” Cyrus gave a sharp nod. “Tell me,” Quirin leaned forward on his hands, and too late Cyrus realized this must be what he was going for from the beginning. “How is the library doing? It would be nice to hear about how the front is managing itself, and not just the research my son tells me of.”

Cyrus wondered if perhaps Quirin didn’t fully approve of Varian’s new job just as much as he didn’t approve of Hugo. Or if he’d just heard the rumors about the place and was worried. Either way, Cyrus felt he owed the man an answer.

“Business is slow,” he said bluntly, and Varian winced. “But it's steady, and growing every day.” Quirin didn’t look fully convinced, so Cyrus decided to elaborate. “No one’s been cursed yet,” he offered. “And our little fae has mostly stopped stealing back the books now she’s seen they get returned.”

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hugo glare. Why would you mention your imaginary friend? His expression said.

Quirin however, looked intrigued. “A fae you say?” he said, rubbing his chin. “Those are rare nowadays.” Cyrus saw Hugo’s mouth fall open in shock. “Tell me,” Quirin continued. “Have you tried giving her offerings?”

“Quite a few,” Cyrus’ lips quirked up, feeling a slight spark of smug pleasure in another acknowledging the silver-haired fae’s existence. “Just yesterday I offered Mona’s special honey cookies and milk.”

“Did it work?” Quirin asked. Cyrus shook his head. “Hmmm,” Quirin mused. “Honey and milk usually does it. It worked on the lake sprites that were giving the village some trouble a few years back.”

“Lake sprites did what now?” Varian gaped, but both men ignored him.

“Perhaps our library fae is just more stubborn than the lake sprites,” Cyrus shrugged, and instantly regretted it. What had Grandpa always said? Never insult a fae while in their domain?

He glanced around, but nothing seemed to change. Cyrus had just enough time to breathe a sigh of relief when Mona’s line gave a sharp tug. She startled, having been more engaged in the conversation than the rod, and pulled with all her might. But whatever was on the other side pulled with the strength no normal fish could have, and sent Mona flying over the side of the boat.

Cyrus reached out for her foot as it flew by his head, but his fist closed over empty air. No. Cyrus grabbed the edge of the boat, and with one mighty leap, hurled himself across the lake to where his wife had disappeared beneath the water.

It was not until after his head had fully submerged that the panic of “Mona can’t swim!” Became “I can’t swim!” He struggled in the water. waving his arms and legs about in a desperate hope that it might keep him afloat. The water flooded his open mouth, stealing his air away. He kicked harder, struggling against the current of water pulling him down.

Something hard collided with his back, tugging him forcefully to the surface. His head broke the water and he gasped, gulping down as much air as he could. Whatever it held him in place, strangely buoyant. He craned his neck around, to see something bright and pink was stuck to his back and arms.

“You absolute imbecile,” a very familiar voice said. Cyrus looked up to see Hugo standing above him, balanced on the buoyant pink that kept them both afloat.

“Hugo!” Cyrus cried. “Mona! Save Mona!” But Hugo ignored him, instead using a rope to pull them closer to the line. Strong arms pulled him upwards into the boat, and without the mobility of his arms, there really wasn’t much he could do.

“Mona!” he cried again, only to hear an answering,

“Cyrus!” he turned, a difficult feat with the strange pink substance still stuck to his back, to see Mona, soaking wet and covered in the same pink substance but breathing and alive. “Oh Cyrus!” Mona sobbed, and threw herself towards him. Cyrus tried to catch her, but found he still could not move his arms. Instead they lay against each other, drinking in each other’s presence.

“Now everyone is saved,” Hugo patted Cyrus’ shoulder and gave a tight smile. “What the hell were you thinking?” His hand closed into a fist.

Cyrus blinked. “Mona can’t swim.” He pointed out.

“Neither can you, you absolute idiot!” Hugo was shaking with fury. If Cyrus didn’t know better, he’d say he was afraid. “You never use your head! If you’d thought for even one moment, you’d have known there were better people to go after her!”

“You jumped in too,” Cyrus pointed out, feeling this whole tirade was somewhat hypocritical. “You can’t swim either.”

“Actually I can,” Hugo sniffed. “Varian taught me.” Cyrus looked over at Varian, who was standing awkwardly to the side, water dripping from his hair to his goggles. Teaching Hugo a life saving skill? That was worth at least fifty points. Varian ducked his head.

“He swam me to the boat!” Mona added, voice muffled as she spoke against Cyrus’ chest. And okay, saving Mona from near drowning was another fifty points. Still far from the thousand points he’d lost, but an impressive enough improvement to drive home how he really should take Mona’s advice.

“Gonna get us out of here?” He grunted at Varian, who’s head snapped up.

“I don’t know,” Hugo crossed his arms. “I think we should just leave you in there, so you don’t go jumping back in the lake.” Quirin frowned, and Hugo added hastily, “But Mona we can get out.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Varian rolled his eyes. “Here,” he said to Cyrus with a shy smile. “Let me help.” He uncorked a small vial, and poured the strange green liquid over Cyrus’s shoulders. Cyrus could feel the pink substance crackle and break as he drew his arms forward to cradle Mona, who was still stuck. Varian leaned over her, and Cyrus watched the pink slowly crumble off her shoulders.

“Thank you,” Mona gave a slight smile, and Cyrus felt her pull closer against him, body shivering.

“I think that’s enough fishing for today,” Quirin said, and Cyrus and Mona were quick to nod along. It was time to go back home.

-------------

“Can I talk to you son?” Quirin said casually as he and Hugo pulled in the boat. “Man to man?”

Cyrus stiffened. A sneak attack when everyone was beginning to relax. How hadn’t he seen this coming? He looked at Hugo, trying to convey the message, do you need me to follow in case of ambush?

Hugo’s shoulders slumped as he let out a long sigh. “Sure Quirin,” he said. He shot Cyrus a look that clearly said, come get me if I scream. Then he took a deep breath and followed Quirin, looking for all the world like a man going to his own execution.

As they moved around the bend and out of view, Cyrus realized he and Mona had been left alone with Varian. Great. Now what?

Varian shifted, tugging at his sleeve. “So I guess this is the time when you tell me not to break Hugo’s heart?” he asked, voice an octave higher.

Mona and Cyrus looked at each other. Cyrus sighed. “It’s not my place to tell Hugo what he can or can’t do. I’m not his father.” He said, getting really tired of people expecting him to have some kind of authority over Hugo. Mona raised an eyebrow and he shook his head. Really he didn’t. The last person to tell Hugo not to do something was Donella, and look how well that worked out. Mona looked down, seeming to understand.

“Oh,” Varian looked down, and Mona bit her lip.

“You know he’s not actually related to us right?” she offered. “That day he brought you over, I’d never seen him in person before.”

“I’m just a guy who worked for Donella,” Cyrus added, because Varian needed to understand that Hugo didn’t have anyone else, he’d given up his closest connection for Varian.

“Yeah, but,-” Varian’s brow wrinkled, “-you still helped him. And when my Dad suggested a family fishing trip, he insisted you guys come. You guys might not be related, but you’re important to him. And,-” His eyes met Cyrus’ blazing with a determined fire, “-I want Hugo’s family to approve of me.”

Cyrus starred back, feeling frozen one again under that familiar glare. For the first time, he wondered if maybe Varian was as intimidated of Cyrus as he was of him. The thought was almost laughable, he’d read up on Varian, he knew what he was really capable of. There was no way he’d be able to beat him if the boy decided to go all out. But then again, there were other ways to hurt someone.

What had it been Mona had said to him when they’d been on their way to introduce her to the thug guild?

“I just really want them to like me,” she’d confided when he’d asked why she was so nervous. “I want to be with you forever, and I don’t want to make that forever miserable for you.

Cyrus sighed. “I’m still not going to threaten you,” he said, and then because Varian looked far too happy to hear that he added, “I wouldn’t want you to see it coming.”

Varian’s face fell as Mona let out a peal of laughter. “Cyrus!” she giggled. “Hugo’s an adult now! You can’t go killing off his problems anymore!”

“He what now?” Varian’s eyes widened in alarm as he looked between Cyrus and Mona.

“There was only one,” Cyrus grunted, and Varian paled.

“He deserved it,” Mona waved a hand. “Don’t worry darling, you’d have to kill a few animals in front of their owners before you even came close.”

“I-” Varian started, looking hopelessly lost. “I think I’m missing something.”

“Welcome to the family kid,” Cyrus smiled as he saw Quirin and Hugo heading back around the bend. “You’ll get used to it.”

[disneymiraculousefandomsblog]

Hey guys! So I saw this amazing art piece made by @chiscribbs I absolutely loved it and I just had to write a one shot story. This takes place after Varian gets pardon. all credit goes to @chiscribbs for her amazing art work that inspired this story. And @cloudthehusky for helping me with the story title😊 I hope you guys enjoy it!😊

Varian Swim Lesson

It had been 2 weeks since Varian had helped Rapunzel take Corona back from the Sephorians, he was still trying to earn back the trust of the people of Corona and Rapunzel. Varian promised himself he would do whatever it takes to get Rapunzel and the people of Corona to trust him again, even through the people didn’t really like Varian from the beginning. Varian got up and got himself ready, Rapunzel had invited him and all their friends to go to the park lake to have some fun.

“Alright buddy, this is our first outing since...well you know” Varian paused remembering when his father was encased and he was tossed in jail.

“This is our fresh start Ruddiger, let’s show Rapunzel how grateful we are for pardoning us” Varian said with a determined look.

Ruddiger chitters with agreement while running up to Varian’s shoulders. Varian grabbed his bag, “Dad I’m going to spend the day with the princess I’ll be back later today” Varian said with a smile.

“Ok son be careful and have fun!” Quirin answered with a smile.

“I will dad” Varian said giving his dad a hug. He was happy that Rapunzel kept her promise and freed his dad.

Quirin was stunned at the sudden hug, “I love you son” Quirin said returning the hug.

“I love you too dad” Varian answered embracing the hug.

Varian pulled away for the hug and waved bye to his dad ran out the door.

Rapunzel, Lance, Catalina,Kiera, and Eugene were already at the park setting everything up, they put out some tables, chairs, and Rapunzel took out the food the place cook made for them. Varian finally made it when they were already done setting everything up.

“Hey Guys! Sorry I’m late, Ruddiger stopped at an Apple tree for a snack and I thought I’d bring some apples for the picnic heh” Varian explained rubbing his hand behind his head.

“Here you go” Varian said handing the basket of apples.

“Thanks Varian! But you didn’t have to, we had everything covered” Rapunzel answered taking the basket of apples.

“Yeah I know but it didn’t seem right to be invited and not being anything heh..” Varian said with a chuckle.

Rapunzel smiled and pulled Varian into a hug. Varian was still trying to get used to the random hugs Rapunzel would give him. He was not used to the hugs yet, it had been months since anyone cared for him or even hugged him when his dad was encased.

Rapunzel pulled him away from the hug, “I’m so glad you could come Varian” Rapunzel said with a smile.

“Heh...thanks princess” Varian answered with a slight smile.

Rapunzel left to put the basket of apples on the table. “Alright guys what should we do first?” Rapunzel asked.

“Ooh how about we start with some games!” Catalina shouted.

“Ooh or how we go swimming I know I could beat all of you in a swim race!” Kiara said with excitement.

“I got a better idea, how about we start by eating first” Lance said smelling the delicious smell coming from the food.

“Those all sound like great ideas, why don’t we juts do all of them. We will play games first to work up and appetite what you guys say?” Rapunzel asked with a smile.

“Yeah that sounds like a good idea” Eugene answered.

“Great then let’s get started!” Rapunzel said with excitement.

Rapunzel set up the first game, she grabbed two nails or stakes and hammered them to the ground. “Alright guys this game is called horse shoes, the goal of the game is to toss the horse shoe as close to the stake and you get a point, whichever team gets the most points wins.” Rapunzel explained.

“Are we good?” Rapunzel asked making sure they understood the game.

They all nodded in agreement. “Great let’s have some Fun!” Rapunzel said with excitement.

They broke into two teams boys against girls, the girls went first. Catalina grabbed the horse shoe and eyed her initial target and tossed the horse shoe as hard as she could, the horse shoe landed right next to the stake. “Yes!” Catalina jumped and shouted with excitement.

“Great job Catalina!” Lance clapped.

Varian and Lance looked over to Lance with a confused look. “What? That was a really good shot!” Lance said In defense.

The girls just laughed. It was Varian’s turn next, he stretched his arms to loosen them and he grabbed the shoe and took a breath. He put the shoe in front of his face to focus on the target and he tossed it with all his strength. The horse shoe flew and landed right in the center of the stake. “Haha yes! Bullseye!” Varian shouted doing his victory dance.

“Haha Great shot Varian!” Rapunzel applauds with a smile.

“Great shot Hairstripe!” Eugene said giving Varian a high-five.

“Heh, thanks guys!” Varian said giving Eugene a high-five.

“Rapunzel was next, she grabbed the shoe, and rubbed her feet on the ground to get a better grip. She moved her arm in a circle and tossed the shoe, it flew through the air and landed right in front of the stake.

“Hmm, i thought it would have landed right inside the stake.” Rapunzel said with a confused tone.

“That’s ok Rapunzel, it still counts as a point anyway” Kiara said tapping her on the shoulder.

“Yeah your right” Rapunzel said with a smile.

“Alright who’s next” Rapunzel asked the boys.

“I am!” Lance said with pride.

Lance grabbed the shoe and tossed it with all his strength. The shoe flew into the air and landed way passed the stake. “Aww Lance!” Eugene said and does a face palm.

“Oops I guess I don’t know my own strength” Lance answered shrugging his shoulders.

“Alright so girls have 3 points and boys have 1 it’s down to Eugene.” Rapunzel stated.

“Hmm how about we make this more interesting, since technically us girls already won, but we will give you boys a chance. Eugene if you get the shoe right inside the middle of the stake it will double your points so it be two points instead of one. How does that sound?” Rapunzel asked Eugene.

“That’s sounds like a fair challenge” Eugene answered.

“Great! So it’s all on you Eugene!” Rapunzel said with a smile.

Eugene grabbed one of the shoes from the ground and put it in front of his face to focus on his target, He took a deep breath and pulled his arm back and tossed it. Everyone was looking at the sky as the shoe flew in the air waiting to see where it would land. After a few seconds it landed right inside the stake.

“Haha! Yes! We WON!” Eugene shouted with excitement.

Rapunzel clapped for the boys. “Great shot Eugene!” Rapunzel complimented.

“Man! We should have won!” Kiara said with a pout.

“Aww it’s ok Kiara, we technically did win, but I decided to give the boys a chance since they have Lance there team” Rapunzel said with a giggle.

“Haha, your right!” Kiara answered with a giggle.

“I heard that!” Lance said defensively.

The girls just giggled. “What should we do next?” Catalina asked.

“I have an idea!” Kiara answered.

Kiara ran towards Varian and tagged him on the back, “your it!” Kiara yelled and ran away.

“Hey! That’s not fair!” Varian said and ran after her.

Everyone started chasing each other trying to tag on another, Lance chased the girls and tackled them, the girls started to laugh and giggle. Eugene started chasing Rapunzel but she used her long hair to trip him, “Aha! Tag your it!” Rapunzel shouted with a giggle.

Varian was sneaking to tag Rapunzel when Eugene came up for behind him and tagged him. “Varian your it now!” Eugene said with a chuckle.

“Hey! I’m gonna get you for that!” Varian yelled running after him.

The tag game had lasted an hour till everyone was tied of running.

“Whew I’m tired and it’s hot” Rapunzel said wiping her head.

“Oh how about we go swimming now?” Eugene said.

“Oh yeah that sounds like a cool...idea!” Lance said making a pun.

“Haha very funny Lance” Eugene said with a chuckle.

“That sounds like a good idea Eugene it will cool is down, what do you say guys?” Rapunzel asked the girls and Varian.

“Yeah count us in!” The girls replied.

Varian stayed quiet not really knowing what to answer, “Varian are you ok?” Rapunzel asked him.

“Y-Yeah it’s just, I don’t really know how to swim...heh” Varian answered shyly.

“Varian no one taught you how to swim?” Rapunzel asked.

“Well no not really, my dad would have taught me but we were mostly busy with gathering the harvest and he never really got the chance..heh..but it didn’t help either that I was alway inventing and doing alchemy potions all day.” Varian answered sheepishly.

“Well that’s all going to change I’ll teach you how to swim” Rapunzel said with a smile.

“Heh, it’s ok Rapunzel I don’t really like getting in the water unless I’m going to take a shower.” Varian said rubbing his hand behind his head.

“Oh come on Varian! It will be fun! What do you say?” Rapunzel encouraged him with a smile.

“Oh..Ok let’s do it!” Varian answered.

“Yay! Varian you’ll see that you will start swimming and having fun in no time!” Rapunzel said with excitement.

Eugene gave Varian an arm bump, “Don’t sweat it kid, I’ll be here to help you too” Eugene said with a smile.

“ Th-Thanks Eugene” Varian Thanked him with an arm bump.

Catalina,Kiara, and Lance where the first ones to get in the lake, Lance did a deep dive and splashed water all over the place. Rapunzel walked into the water and stopped when the water was covering half of her body. “Alright Varian it’s your turn, just walk into the water and I’ll hold your hands so you don’t slip.” Rapunzel instructed with her hands stretched out.

Varian took off his shoes and took a deep breath, he grabbed a tree branch to balance himself and put one of his foot into the water. “O-Ohh... that’s c-cold...” Varian said with shivers running through his body.

“Come on Varian you got this” Rapunzel encouraged him.

Varian put one foot in then he slowly put his other foot in. “Oh-oh that’s c-cold...” Varian kept saying to himself.

“That’s it, Your doing great Varian! One step at a time” Rapunzel said grabbing one of Varian’s hands.

“M-Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. I’m-I’m not even entirely sure that these gloves are, uh, waterproof and- OH, I JUST FELT SOMETHING TOUCH MY FOOT!” Varian said with a frightened tone.

“It’s okay, Varian. Just take my hands, you’ve got this.” Rapunzel said with a calming tone.

“Oh-okay...” Varian stuttered.

Varian stretched out his arms and grabbed Rapunzel hands. “There you go, I got you” Rapunzel said leading Varian deeper into the water. “See you did it! Your in the water!” Rapunzel complemented with a smile.

“Heh, your right, what do I do now?” Varian asked.

Eugene looked at Varian, “okay kid so the first lesson of learning to swim is how to float and doggy paddle, here I’ll show you how it’s done.” Eugene said lifted his legs and he started to float.

“You see how Eugene is laying on top of the water, it’s because he is calm and not panicking, because if you start to panic your body will start dragging you down. And instead of floating you will drown.” Rapunzel explained.

Eugene put his legs down and started to stand up. “Alright kid your turn” Eugene said with a smile.

“Oh-okay” Varian said nervously.

“Don’t worry Varian I’ll be here holding you so you won’t drown” Eugene assured him.

Eugene grabbed Varian and gently lifted his legs, “Now I just want you to lay your head back and try to relax let your body float okay” Eugene said cautiously holding him.

Varian did his best to follow the instructions Eugene gave him, but when he layers his head back and his ears submerged in the water he lifted himself back up. “Gah! I don’t like water on my ears” Varian said tilting his head to get the water out.

“Haha! Well you have to get used to it first, once you keep doing doing it the water won’t feel so uncomfortable” Eugene said with a smile.

“Do you want to try again Varian?” Rapunzel asked.

“Heh, yeah I’ll try again” Varian answered pushing the rest of the water out of his ears.

“Ok buddy let’s try this again, you almost had it the first time” Eugene encouraged him.

This time Varian lifted his legs and Eugene held him for support, Varian laid his head back all the way till his ears were completely covered. Varian did his best to relax and not think about the wet feeling I’m his ears.

“Eugene how am I doing?” Varian asked him.

Eugene let go of Varian to answer and Varian’s body started falling back into the water, Varian tried his best to keep his legs and body up but the gravity pulled him down.

Eugene lifted Varian up before he could sink completely. I’m so sorry Varian! You okay buddy?” Eugene asked with concern.

“Y-Yeah I’m fine” Varian answered coughing out some water.

“Eugene why didn’t keep floating? I was relaxed...” Varian asked confused.

“Well once you start to think about something that’s not relaxing your mind starts working and thoughts fill your head and you loose concentration, and your body starts to sink.” Eugene explained.

“Wow really?...Hmm that’s interesting, maybe If I do some scientific research I can figure out why that happens and I can make a compound that keeps you afloat.....” Varian ranted.

Rapunzel and Eugene looked at each other confused, There was never a day where Varian wouldn’t think about alchemy, Varian kept ranting his ideas.

“Hey Eugene! Come play with us!” Catalina said waving him to come over.

Eugene looked at Rapunzel, “Think you can finish teaching him?” Eugene asked.

“Yes of course! I’ve got this.” Rapunzel answered with a smile.

Eugene smiled and went to go join Lance and the girls. Varian was still ranting, Rapunzel put her hand on his shoulder to snap him out of his ranting. “Varian, don’t you want to finish your lesson?” Rapunzel asked.

Varian snapped out of his ranting thoughts and looked at Rapunzel, “Oh heh, sorry princess I was lost in my thoughts again, Yes I would.” Varian answered sheepishly.

Rapunzel taught Varian how to doggy paddle and how to move his arms and legs to swim and keep himself from drowning. Their lesson had lasted 2 hours, Eugene, Lance and the girls played water tag and the girls played water wrestling, Catalina was on Lance Shoulders and Kiera was on Eugene shoulders and the girls wrestled each other. Catalina pushed Eugene and Kiara causing them to fall into the water, Catalina had won the game.A few hours had passed by and Rapunzel looked at the sky and saw that it was going to be sunset soon. “Alright guys I think we had enough swimming lesson and fun for today, it will be dark soon and we still haven’t eaten yet.” Rapunzel said with a smile.

They all got out of the lake, “yeah I’m starving, all that swimming really worked up an appetite” Lance stated.

“Lance even if you didn’t go swimming you would still be hungry” Eugene teased Lance.

They all made their way to the picnic table to sit down and eat. Varian squeezed the excess water out of his clothes and tried to dry himself up as much as he could because he didn’t bring a new pair of clothes. Varian put his gloves and shoes on and made his way to the table, he still felt a bit odd being around people again, for 2 whole years he was alone with no one but Rudigger by his side. “I just can’t understand after all i did to my friends and to Corona how could they forgive me just like that? How can they treated me like nothing ever happened? I know Rapunzel forgave me but I don’t really deserve her or their forgiveness.” All these questions ran through Varian’s mind. Rapunzel saw Varian just standing there. She walks over to him. “Varian are you ok?” Rapunzel asked putting her hands on his shoulders.

Varian looks at Rapunzel, “Y-Yeah I’m fine...” Varian answered looking away.

“You don’t look okay, Varian what’s wrong? What’s bothering you?” Rapunzel asked with concern.

Varian looked at Rapunzel not really wanting to tell her how he felt, but he knew she would not stop asking till he spoke.

“It’s just how can you forgive me after everything I’ve done?. You invited me like I was your friend again, like I never hurt you. You taught me how to swim even though you didn’t have to, how can you care for me after everything I did to you and your kingdom?” Varian said putting his head down with shame.

Rapunzel stayed quiet pondering everything Varian just told her, she knew it had only been a couple of weeks since they took back Corona from the sephorians and everyone was still trying to get used to Varian being the good guy again.

“Varian, I forgave you because I know your a good person, I know you regret doing all those things but you did it because you thought it was right and you were desperate to save your dad, I understand why you sis what you did, if I was in your place i probably would have done the same thing.” Rapunzel pauses when a memory enters her mind. She sees cass taking the moonstone and turning against her back at the dark kingdom.

“ I-I know what it’s like to have a friend you trust betray you...Varian I betrayed you when I didn’t go and help you when you asked for help during that blizzard, I broke my promise to you and I’m so sorry” Rapunzel tires to hold back her tears.

“Rapunzel you had no choice I understand that now your kingdom needed you, and even if you came with me there was probably nothing you could do to save my dad, I just hate that I learned that after everything I did” Varian said shamefully.

“Maybe but if I had just gone to see you or check up on you after the storm maybe you wouldn’t have done any of that. I’m really sorry Varian can you forgive me?” Rapunzel asked with a tear falling down her face.

Varian didn’t understand why Rapunzel felt bad he was the one that did damage to Corona, but he was hurt that she didn’t help him when he asked for help or anyone for that matter. “Rapunzel I forgive you, I had already forgiven you for that, I have to admit I was hurt when you turned me down but now I know that Corona needed you and there was nothing you could do. But I forgive you princess” Varian answered with a smile.

“Can you forgive me for everything I’ve done? I know I could never earn your trust so easily but I sure will try my best to make up for everything I did” Varian said putting his head down.

Rapunzel looked and Varian and pulled him into a hug, they were both hurting and they were still trying to work things out and forgive themselves for everything they did wrong. “Varian I already forgave you for all that” Rapunzel said pulling him away for the hug so see his face.

“Your a great and very smart kid Varian, you don’t have you prove yourself to anyone your a good person, we couldn’t have taken Corona back without your help, your a great friend and we love you. Don’t ever forget that..I know we are both trying to figure things out but we can do it together, that’s what friends do.” Rapunzel said with a soft smile.

Varian smiled back and pulled her into a hug, “T-Thank you princess! I-I love you too...” Varian said with a smile.

Rapunzel smiled and returned with a tighter hug. Varian was the first one to pull away from the hug “Thanks for teaching me how to swim too, I had fun” Varian said with a smile.

“Your welcome and that’s not all you still have more lessons to learn if you want to get better. If your up for it we can keep teaching you, what do you say?” Rapunzel asked with a smile.

“I-I’d like that, thank you Princess” Varian answered with a smile.

“Are you ready to join the others?, I told the chef to make your favorite, Ham Sandwiches” Rapunzel said with a cheerfulness.

“Heh really?, You didn’t have to princess but thank you Varian with a smile.

Rapunzel smiled and grabbed Varian by the arm and pulled him to the table where everyone was sitting down. “There you guys are, what took you so long?” Kiara asked impatiently.

“Varian and I just needed a little time” Rapunzel answered nervously.

“Well okay, at least we can eat now” Kiara said.

Rapunzel passed the sandwich’s. Everyone had a great time, Lance made some jokes that he thought were funny, Rapunzel and Eugene told the stories about their adventures they had after they left Corona. A few hours had passed and the sun had set already, it was time for everyone to go home.

Lance grabbed the girls,

“Bye Rapunzel, Thanks for inviting us!” Catalina said waving goodbye.

“This was fun! Thank you Princess!” Kiara said with a smile.

“Everything was delicious! See you around Eugene, Goodbye Princess!” Lance waves goodbye.

Rapunzel and Eugene waved to their friends as they left. Varian put all his stuff in his backpack and was ready to walk back home.

“Uh, T-Thanks guys for everything... I really had a good time, I should be heading home too dad will be asking for me and it’s a long walk back heh..” Varian said sheepishly.

“Were glad you had a good time, that’s what Eugene and I wanted. Oh and you can come by to the castle anytime to visit us or to even finish your swimming lessons” Rapunzel said with a smile.

“Yeah I’d like that, thank you Princess” Varian said with a chuckle.

“Well I better be going, I’ll see you guys later, thanks again for....” Varian stopped mid sentence he didn’t want to mention anything of the past.

Rapunzel and Eugene looked at each other, they really wanted Varian to know and understand that they forgave him and they aren’t holding anything against him. They both pulled Varian into a hug. Varian’s eyes started to fill with water. He tired his best to hold back tears but he could. Once Rapunzel and Eugene embraced him in a hug tears started to fall down his face. Rapunzel pulled him away from the hug to see his face, “Varian I know it’s hard for you to accept this but we already forgave you, there is no need for you to feel guilty for what happed in the past. I know we can’t forget what happed but you have to try and move forward and forgive yourself, just like we did. Your a great kid Varian and we love you” Rapunzel said with a comforting smile.

Varian smiled and embraced them in a hug once more, “Thank you for not giving up on me” Varian whispered.

“I-I love you guys too” Varian said with a smile.

Eugene and Rapunzel retuned the hug. After a few minutes passed Varian pulled away from the hug and wiped away the tears from his eyes and smiled. Varian started to make his way home, “Bye guys thanks again for everything!” Varian said waving back as he continued walking.

Rapunzel and Eugene waved back and made their way back to the castle. After a few minutes of walking Varian made it home. He closed the door quietly not wanting to wake up his dad if he was asleep.

“Hello son, How was the picnic” Quirin asked.

Varian startled when his dad spoke, he did not see him when he came in.

“Oh hey dad, you startled me I thought you were asleep already heh..but it went really well, I had a great time” Varian said with a chuckle.

“Oh I’m sorry son I didn’t mean to scare you, I’m glad you had fun, you deserved a break from working on your inventions” Quirin said with a smile.

“Well I’m going to bed, I was just waiting for you to arrive. Goodnight son” Quirin said walking to his bedroom.

“Goodnight dad! I love you!” Varian said as he ran to his dad and gave him a hug.

Quirin at first was stunned at the sudden hug,

“love you too Varian” Quirin said returning with a tighter hug.

The End.

I really hope you guys enjoyed reading this😊 I really enjoyed writing this 💕 I’m sorry if it was dragging a bit I had my ups and downs with ideas writing it lol 😂 your feedback and constructive criticism is always welcome💕 I’d love to here your thoughts:). Your comments and Reblogs are what keep me going😉 love you all!

[sheyshen]

A Stupid Idea

Me? writing a smut fic? in 2021? in this economy? impossible.

Series: warcraft Pair: Shey/Varian Rating Explicit (it’s smut, yes) Summary: Right before heading off to Mount Hyjal soon after Deathwing's return, Shey decides she needs to drop by and visit a friend. Just a smut fic with a little bit of fluff mixed in. Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28572321

This was a stupid idea. Shey grumbled as she stared down at the desk in front of her. It was stupid and would probably get her into trouble, but she didn’t want to just want to leave without saying goodbye. Between assisting with cleanup around the park, preparing for the trip to Mount Hyjal in the morning, and finishing some last-minute errands she wanted to take care of before she left there hadn’t been any other chance during the day. She had debated on leaving a letter, but felt that too impersonal for someone she considered a close friend, and had hoped he had been in his room when she had arrived, but he wasn’t, likely in another meeting with the leaders of the Alliance as they all dealt with various crises throughout the rest of the world.

Deathwing really had some terrible timing.

So here she stood, in the king of Stormwind’s personal chambers debating on what to do. If he walked in on her standing here waiting for him how would that look? Maybe coming back later would be smarter, but it had been difficult to get through the wing that housed the royal family’s chambers without getting noticed. Maybe she’d be able to catch him before leaving the city in the morning, but if she didn’t, how long would she be away? She sighed. Perhaps tomorrow would be better.

Turning to leave she froze as the sound of the door unlatching and opening alerted her to someone arriving. She muttered words of power, preparing an invisibility spell, holding the last word as she turned and was met with a glare from the man she had been waiting for, and before she could even think of finishing the spell the tip of Shalamayne was pointed at her throat. This all happened in a split second, and a second later the blade was withdrawn as a look of recognition hit.

“Light, you’re quick with that thing.” Shey breathed out, abandoning her thoughts of escape and instead trying to think of a convincing enough reason that she would be in his quarters so late at night.

Sheathing the blade Varian shook his head, “What are you doing here?”

“That’s….” She watched him carefully. He strode past her unlatching his shoulder plates and removing them. “I’m leaving for Hyjal in the morning.”

“Oh?” He placed the shoulder pads on an armor stand and continued to unlatch his armor. Shey strode over, helping him with parts of it so it was easier for him to remove.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.” She knelt down to help him with his boots. He watched her as she removed the guards and placed them on the side. After both were removed she picked them up and stood, placing them on the table next to the armor stand. “I didn’t have a chance to stop in earlier and I was certain you were buried in reports anyway.” She turned to face him and took a heavy breath and gave him a half-smile, “I just didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye.”

“I’ve read the reports coming in from Kalimdor, you’ll have your work cut out for you.”

“I figured,” She laughed, leaning on the table behind her, watching as he finished removing the rest of his armor. She wanted to say something, but everything she could think of felt… insufficient. She’d miss him, sure, worry for him while she was away. She was certain there were more twilight cultists skulking about, knew Shaw was rooting them out as she stood there. She wanted to say something, something more than 'good night' or 'see you when I get back. If I get back.' The silence between them had begun to stretch, not really awkward, but the sound of him tending to his armor seemed much louder than she sure it really was. Say something… She pushed herself. Outloud she finally spoke up again. “sire?”

He glanced at her and all plans of what she wanted to say died on her lips. Instead, she pushed herself off the table and stepped up to him, reaching up and grabbing his undershirt. Tugging him toward her she pushed herself up on her tiptoes and squeezed her eyes shut. This was stupid, she knew it, but to hell with it, she’d been dancing around the attraction, the fantasies and dirty dreams, the impossibilities… She prepared herself for the imminent rejection as her lips met his, but instead, he leaned in, his arms wrapping around her, pulling her closer and holding tight.

Emboldened by this she deepened the kiss, nipping at his lip as she pulled away when the need for air forced her to pull away. She looked at him, there was a wild glint in his eyes as if he also was weighing the options as she was. Both of their breathing was heavier, and he had some smudges of lipstick on his mouth and she was certain she was going to need to fix her makeup before she left.

“That was…” She started but he cut her off, kissing her again. harder than before, more demanding, more teeth, and tongue. He gripped her hips firmly and lifted, never breaking the kiss. She wrapped her arms around him, lacing her fingers in his hair, and held on as she felt him move. She could feel him through his thinner undershirt, the muscles along his back, and how they flexed as he took careful steps across his quarters.

Breaking the kiss he dropped her on his bed, turning his attention briefly to his boots as he yanked them off in a hurry and returned his attention to the woman before him. he leaned on the bed, kissing at her jaw as he unclipped her cloak from the embroidered shoulder pads that she favored. He fumbled a moment with the latch that kept them attached to her tunic, a frustrated noise escaping him as he fought with the leather as it twisted and refused to go through the latch. She chuckled, removing his hands and reaching back, “I’ll get it.”

He watched her as she unclipped them, taking them from her shoulders before she could do it herself, and tossed them to the side, returning his focus to her mouth and running his hands along her sides.

“Impatient…” She murmured, though she could say the same for herself as she tugged at his shirt, urging him to take it off. He obliged, pulling it over his head and taking a step back to remove his belt and push his pants down. Taking the moment free of his attention she unlatched her belt and set to unclipping her tunic, the black and silver detailing hiding the plethora of clips and zipper that ran along the back. The fact that it was one full piece made things easier to remove, the soft mageweave cloth was comfortable, and while it would’ve been easy enough for them to continue with it on, she’d rather not risk ripping or dirtying it. Even with magic she doubted she’d have time enough to clean or repair anything before morning.

Varian had still managed to strip faster than she had and set to removing her light boots and socks, peeling them down from her thighs, and following it up with kisses and nibbles along the same path. She grinned, barely keeping herself from giggling as he found a ticklish spot. He looked up at her from his place in between her legs and the heated look in his eyes sent a shiver through her. He ran his hands back up along her legs and gripped her hips, lifting them slightly as he helped her finish removing her tunic.

"Careful with that." She breathed out. "I'm going to need that when we're done."

He watched her, a contemplative look even with how clearly wound up he was. She could feel her nerves twisting in her stomach, maybe he didn't want this after all, changed his mind. She wouldn't blame him,  she wasn't part of the court, one of the many gentlemen and ladies that hung on his every word and swooned at the drop of a hat. She had no standing with the nobility, was just a mage from Dalaran, an adventurer, a nobody.

He pushed himself up, running his hand along her jaw to the back of her head, tangling his fingers in the mass of white hair and gripped. He was still watching her carefully, breath labored, pupils blown, erection straining against the cloth of his underpants.

"Sire?"

"Don't call me that." It came out as a groan, a growl, a warning, a vocalization of how he was trying to hold back. "Not here, not when we're alone."

"Varian?" She corrected. He leaned forward once more, kissing her, leaning on the bed but keeping his weight off her. It was still passionate, but less demanding than before.

He kissed along her jaw and she was certain her lipstick was absolutely ruined but she couldn't find any way to be upset about that. He bit at her ear, breath ghosting along her jaw and stirring the loose hair that wasn't in his grip. "Are you sure?" He asked, loosening his grip on her.

"Very." Shey ran her hands along his side, dipping her fingers in the band of his underwear. That explained things, holding back in case she decided to run. She traced the banding, following it to the front, and then ran her fingers along the tip of his cock, caressing the head.

He groaned at the feeling, tightening his grip on her hair and pulling away. When he looked at her she smirked, giving him a silent challenge. Taking that as his cue he released the grip he had on her hair and pushed her shoulders, forcing her back onto the mattress, kissing her hard as he climbed on top of her. Releasing her shoulders he ran one hand down her stomach tracing the dips and curves as he went. Past her waist, her hips, running his fingers along the folds hidden in between those legs that taunted him daily.

He watched her face as he thumbed at her clit pulling a huffed groan from her, dipping his fingers in and playing at her entrance. He found it practically dripping and couldn't help but chuckle.

"Don't." She huffed, another quiet moan escaping her as he continued to explore her folds with his fingers, "not funny." Another. "Always like this with you."

He cocked an eyebrow at her, his curiosity overriding his desire for the moment. "Always?"

"Since the day we met." More quiet huffs and moans. "Wanted you."

"Me too." He kissed her, pulling his hand back. She wrapped her arms around him as he shoved his underwear down, stroking himself and lining up. He rubbed himself along her folds, rocking his hips slower than he wanted at the moment, but he held back. Readying himself he rolled his hips forward, easing himself in. She groaned as he pushed in, carefully, testing what she could handle, taking every ounce of self-control he could muster.

Careful, careful. He sheathed himself fully, kissing her as she brought one leg up to rest on his hip and the other on his leg.

"Good?" He asked. When she nodded he rolled his hips back, pulling nearly all the way out before snapping back forward and repeating the motion. With that confirmation she was still wanting this, still wanting him, he let slip that barely held self-control, letting himself get lost in the feeling of her under him. The heat of her hands as they roamed his back and sides, the taste of her skin, the breathy moans and quiet gasps that escaped. Nothing loud, he was making more noise than she was, but it didn't matter half as much as the sound of her saying his name. No titles, no honorifics, just Varian, just him.

He bit at her neck, bruising kisses, "mine." He kept up a quick pace, gripping her tight, her neck and collarbone covered in lovebites, he was certain his was similar, the blood-red of her lipstick smudged.

He could feel his pace losing its rhythm, felt her walls tightening around him, the edge nearing. Nearing. He slammed in a final time, release washing over him as they came. He rolled his hips, working through the aftershocks as he softened, before pulling out of her and letting out a breath as he rolled over.

Shey took a few calculated breaths, calming herself before sitting up and looking over him. The moonslight shining through the window made her already snow-white hair appear to glow. Beautiful.

Pushing himself up he kissed her, pulling her to him as he lay back, tugging at the blankets twisted up around them and pulling them over them both.

"Stay tonight." His voice was still rough. She smiled at him and snuggled in close. He yawned as he held her close.

"Didn't mean to tire you out." She huffed a laugh.

"It was a long day." He admitted. He wanted to say something else, started to, but realized there wasn't a point as the woman at his side had fallen asleep. He started drifting off as well as he drew nonsense patterns along her arm, his thoughts drifting from their activities a moment ago, to the reports he had to deal with in the morning, to planning for things going forward. The last thought he had before sleep took him was wondering what color her hair might’ve been if she hadn't been a mage.

-

The next thing he heard was the sound of birds as the sun rose, and the quiet snoring from his bedmate. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, scratching at the stubble, and debated on trying to sleep in. A kiss on his jaw made him glance over.

"Good morning." Shey smiled tiredly at him. Her hair was a mess and he was sure he wasn't in much better shape. After he returned the greeting she rolled from the bed, spoke words he couldn't understand and a hairbrush materialized. She set to work, brushing out her hair as he watched her, taking a moment to really take her in and enjoying the view as she wiggled her butt as she brushed, dancing to a song she was humming.

She continued to wander the room, approaching a large dressing table and retrieving a cloth. She froze it, then melted it, and used the warm wet cloth to wipe down, removing the remainder of her lipstick and cleaning up from the night before. He got up, stepping up behind her and gripping her hips.

He rubbed himself against her, earning a chuckle and a half-lidded look as she leaned forward, bracing herself on the table as he eased himself inside. Gone was the careful control from the previous night, though he still kept himself in check.

He slammed into her, pulling those quiet breathy moans from her. He kept a firm grip on her hips as he thrusted, leaning forward to kiss and nip at her neck, losing himself in the feeling of her. He knew they didn't have long. Reaching around with one hand he pressed at her clit, using his fingers to help her reach her end before he did, and before either could get interrupted.

She rolled her hips, meeting him thrust for thrust and one moan slipped out louder than the rest. Surprised for a moment he grinned, seeking to repeat what he did, trying to work her up more. While he didn't manage to pull any more loud moans from her, he did feel her climax, shuddering in his arms and repeating his name.

Removing his hand from her clit, he returned it to her hip, picking up speed and thrusting harder, chasing his release. Close. Close. He lost his rhythm, his focus, leaned his head on her as he bottomed out, coming inside her.

Getting his breathing under control he kissed along her back, pulling out and stepping away. She pushed up from the table, a little shaky, but content, and turned. She stepped up to him, kissing him slowly, affectionately. He returned the kiss, pushing her back against the table. She laughed, pushing gently on his chest and making him pull away. He cocked an eyebrow at her in silent question.

"As much as I'd love to stay and have you on everything in this room, I need to get ready to go." She gave him an apologetic look. She took the now chilled wet cloth, heated it once more, and handed it to him.

"I know." He took the cloth and wiped down, debating on pushing for a little more time. It had been a while since he felt like that, that free to lose himself in another.

She finished cleaning up, retrieved her discarded clothes, and pulled them on, seating herself on the bed to make sure her boots were tight. Varian seated himself next to her, picking up his pants, and started to pull them on when there was a knock at the door. Shey started in surprise and glanced around, scrambling for the remaining pieces of her gear.

Varian had stood and was fixing his pants when the door swung open and Shaw strode in, a small stack of papers in hand.

"Your majesty, I felt it would-" he stopped mid-sentence as he looked up and fully registered that there was a very flushed Shey standing next to the bed.

"Ex- excuse me." Shey blurted out as she hurried past the spy, and down the hall with the remaining bits of her armor in hand. She walked as quickly as she could past the guards and a few dignitaries that were waiting outside a meeting room and out of the keep. She didn't slow until she reached her home and slammed the door shut behind her.

That was stupid. But she didn't regret a single moment of it.

[rapunzied]

masterpost of all moon varian evidence i’ve managed to gather

i absolutely love this theory so here u go :) prepare for me actually talking using proper punctuation (beware of s3 spoilers)

The Moon Varian Theory

For awhile, Moon Varian has been a widely believed theory - though most have dismissed it and thought it to be absolute nonsense (I once did too) It actually makes more sense than people give it credit for.

Varian’s Appearance

Now let’s analyze the most obvious hints - his physical appearance.

The Blue Streak

A widely discussed matter has been his famed “blue streak” in his hair. Specifically because in a show like Tangled, about a princess with magic hair that holds color, you would think that hair would have some importance.

When Cass stole the moon opal, her hair turned a shade of teal, implying that the moonstone turns hair blue. While some may argue that Varian’s strand of hair is gray, or even green, I have indeed looked into this. I compared his and Cass’ hair color in a color picker using these two photos -

The results from the colorpicker show that Varian’s streak is indeed blue. In fact, it even looks like a watered down version of Cass’ hair color. Sure, they are a bit different because not all colorpickers give the same results, but look - aren’t they painfully similar? (Cass’ hair color is on the top, Varian’s on the bottom)

Still not thinking Varian’s hairstreak is blue? Thinking that it’s just the lighting of the picture or the color picker I used? Well fear not, do I have something to show you!

In the newest opening of TTS Season 3, Varian is drawn by Rapunzel in her journal - with a hairstreak that is most obviously blue. It almost looks as if it’s glowing and extremely close to the color she uses to draw the rocks and things pertaining to the moon opal - Have I mentioned how much emphasis they put on this certain streak in his hair? In the season 3 premiere of TTS, Eugene gives him the nickname “hair-stripe” - this proves that the other characters are fully aware and completely notice this odd streak in his hair - aware enough to give him nicknames and draw him with it. They think it’s odd because no one else in Corona besides Rapunzel has an odd color in their hair.

I’ve heard people say that Lady Caine and Cassandra had streaks in their hair so Varian’s isn’t that important - but they’re different. Lady Caine and Cass have highlights that are shades of their hair color in their hair. Varian has a blue streak that isn’t even close to the actual color of his hair - his actual highlights are a different color than his blue streak.

Some conspire his streak is the result of an alchemical accident, but this theory has been debunked. In the famed family portrait of Varian, his mother and his father - he still has this blue streak. It seems nonexistent at first, but if you look closely - it’s still there. It just blends into Quirin’s shirt. In No Time Like The Past, Varian is also shown with his blue streak at only five years old. Neither of his parents have any blue streak of any kind in their hair, so where did he get it from?

I imagine Varian could’ve been born with it due to secondhand contact with the rocks or moonstone by his parents before he was born - which might’ve given him the blue streak in his hair - just like how Rapunzel was given blonde hair from secondhand contact with the sundrop flower before her birth.

And I forgot to mention - do you know who else had an odd-colored streak in their hair at one point?

Yeah, that’s right. Rapunzel after she touched the rocks - and that leads us onto our next clues.

Rapunzel and Varian’s Similarities and Differences

If you look deeper into the show, you’ll begin to notice the amount of similarities and differences Raps and Varian have. They seem so different - and yet the same.

If you google them, you’ll find plenty of Varian and Rapunzel parallels, and it makes sense. Wouldn’t the moondrop and sundrop have some things in common but at the same time be so different?

Let’s start with differences - Raps and Varian can be complete opposites sometimes.

Rapunzel is neat and put-together, Varian is messy and unorganized.

Everything seems to work out for Rapunzel, but when Varian is involved, things always go wrong.

Rapunzel is careful, Varian is clumsy.

Rapunzel is very much an optimist, Varian being pessimistic at times.

Rapunzel is on the side of magic, Varian on the side of science.

They completely represent total opposites of each other - Rapunzel the sundrop, with the power to heal and make things right, Varian the moondrop, destructive and clumsy, causing things to often go wrong. It just makes so much sense that they have some similarities as well -

They both are quite naive in different ways.

They both are determined and strong.

They both face challenges where they almost lose something they love.

I’m sure there’s way more. To top it all off, one of the writers, Chris Sonnenburg confirmed there’s a legitimate reason that Rapunzel and Varian have so many similarities.

Moving onto the next topic -

Varian’s Lack of Harm During the Hurt Incantation

I’m sure you are all well aware of the scene where Rapunzel kindly frees Varian’s father using the hurt incantation - many people found this scene peculiar, as did I. Varian reaches over and grabs Raps’ shoulders to get her to snap out of it, his gloves burn off - but his hands are left completely unharmed. He didn’t even feel pain - he just took his hands off Raps’ shoulders because he noticed smoke. The peculiar thing about this scene is that in past instances, Cass’ hand completely burnt through her gloves when she touched Raps during the hurt incantation - but Varian was left with his hand intact. Some claim that his alchemy gloves are just strong enough to withstand the power of the Hurt Incantation - but I object. 

Rapunzel used the hurt incantation - you know. Literal death magic that can kill people and burnt Cass’ whole hand at the slightest touch. I doubt even alchemy gloves are strong enough to stand against withering magic that can cause death. Not to mention Varian was the only one able to snap Raps out of it with only words - What’s up with that?

Check out this image of his gloves melting off. It’s almost as if there’s some sort of barrier keeping his hands from being harmed. Why else would he be left unharmed unless he had some connection to the moondrop, leaving him unharmed compared to Cass? There’s also that when Cass’ gloves burnt off, her gloves went up in blue flames, while his gloves melted with magical sparkles. The whole ordeal is so peculiar - and I’m not even done yet.

Not convinced? Check out the original storyboard for this scene by Anna Lencioni on her Twitter.

In the original storyboard for this scene, Varian places his bare hands on Rapunzel’s face during the incantation - and keep in mind, he isn’t even wearing gloves in the storyboard, yet still remains completely unharmed - you can even see the smoke coming off his hands, but they remain unburned. If this isn’t a sign, I don’t know what is. Sure, it could be an error, but I completely doubt it. If they didn’t put it in the show, there must be a reason - like how they originally were going to have Cass trip on Raps’ hair, but they figured it would make it too obvious that Gothel was related to Cass.

Varian’s Parents

If Varian was somehow connected to the moondrop, it would most likely be through blood - just like Rapunzel. It has been made very clear that Varian’s dad is somehow connected to the Dark Kingdom and the rocks. In the past, Quirin was shown living in the Dark Kingdom and was even in a close vicinity to a blast from the moon opal before Varian was born.

It’s very likely that a portion of the moonstone’s power somehow affected Quirin during that blast, and gave Varian some connection to the moonstone when he was born, kind of like how when Raps’ mom drank the soup made from the sundrop flower.

Quirin has made it very obvious he knows more about the rocks than he leads on - and at first was very cautious and strict about Varian conducting experiments on the rocks. There’s most definitely a reason for this - considering that when Varian asked him what about the rocks didn’t he want Varian to know, he answered that Varian “isn’t ready”. What isn’t he ready to learn? 

I assume that he wrote about it in the famed letter to Varian he wrote just before he was encased in the amber. As soon as he was freed, however, the letter immediately disintegrated, and when asked what it said, Quirin just told Varian that it said he was proud of him. The letter was way too long to be just that - and it’s very clear Quirin is still hiding things from his son. It has even been confirmed by the writers in an interview that the letter is very, very important - implying Quirin lied about that being everything the letter said. Quirin still obviously thinks that Varian isn’t ready to learn about it yet.

Now let’s talk about Varian’s mother. Varian’s mother is very obviously gone. We haven’t seen her once in the series so it’s assumed that she either has died or disappeared. Writers confirmed that Varian’s mother is in fact important to the plot, and we will be learning more about her in the future. Perhaps Varian’s mother was harmed by the rocks in some way? Now to the next subject…

Varian’s Role in Rapunzel’s Visions

If you’ve seen any of the episodes of Season 1 - you’ll notice that Raps has a decent amount of nightmares - a few of them involving Varian - and symbolism that I’ve found blatantly hints at Moon Varian. In almost all her visions of him, he is seen controlling/being linked to the black rocks.

First, let’s look at Rapunzel’s first nightmare involving Varian during Season 1 Episode 19, The Quest for Varian. This nightmare depicts her battling between who to listen to - her dad or Varian. There’s something in this particular nightmare that I found extremely important in regards to the Moon Varian theory.

Here we see Rapunzel standing across from her dad - who is encased in the moon rocks - Just like how Varian’s dad is encased in the amber. Her, representing the sundrop, is standing across from Frederick, encased in the black rocks which represent the moondrop.

Now, check this out:

Right across from her, she sees Varian standing across from his dad encased in the amber. The amber is powered by the sundrop as seen in S1E21, making the amber Quirin is encased in represent the sundrop. If Varian is standing across from something that represents the sundrop, and Rapunzel, the sundrop, is standing across from something that represents the moondrop, what would Varian represent? The moondrop. The fact that Rapunzel’s dad is encased in a substance as well strengthens this argument even more. This is blatant symbolism.

I’m not even finished yet - as the nightmare proceeds, we see Varian run towards Rapunzel. The rocks start following him as if he’s controlling them.

“The rocks, my hair, Varian - It’s like they’re all connected.” - Rapunzel in S1E19

The foreshadowing is often strong in this show - they place the most subtle hints for things and when you look back, you think you would’ve noticed awhile ago.

Moving onto her second vision containing Varian in S1E21 - this nightmare contains Varian yet again seeming to control the black rocks, and him telling her to follow her destiny.

This is important because throughout the entirety of Season 2, Rapunzel was lead to think that her destiny was to grab the moon opal - wouldn’t someone literally connected to the moonstone know that?

Subtle Hints in Dialogue

There are tons of hints to Moon Varian in dialogue - one of these lines being mentioned earlier. After Raps’ first nightmare containing Varian in S1E19, she says something extremely important that gets overlooked often. This is by far the biggest Moon Varian hint we have gotten.

“The rocks, my hair, Varian, it’s like they’re all connected.”

This line implies that she thinks the rocks, her hair and Varian are all linked - What does this line mean? Moon Varian, of course. Why else would they include it? Rapunzel basically says she thinks that Varian is in some way related to these magical moon rocks and her magical hair.

Now leading to our final and most recent vocal hint from the newest episode “Be Very Afraid” where Varian says:

“That’s easy for you to say, you’re the embodiment of the sundrop!” followed by him claiming he’s just an ordinary, normal boy and Rapunzel saying “There is nothing ordinary about you, Varian.”

Foreshadowing much? First of all, the way they set up this line made it sound like it was going to go something like “That’s easy for you to say, you’re the embodiment of the sundrop! I’m the embodiment of the destructive moondrop.” They made it sound as if Varian was calling himself the complete opposite of the sundrop, not the middle ground “normal”.

Also Rapunzel saying he wasn’t ordinary is a huge hint - especially considering Varian’s definition of ordinary was “not possessing magical wondrous powers”.

Other Hints

There is another hint that I found wouldn’t fit into the other categories, so I’m putting it here instead. This is a screenshot from S1E09 when Varian shows Raps and Cass the rocks he found.

Notice anything? Yeah. Two out of three people whose faces were reflected on these rocks were proven to be related or linked to the moonstone at some point (Rapunzel got her hair from the moonstone, Cassandra took the moon opal for herself). What about Varian? I think this is clearly foreshadowing, considering the lengths they’ve gone in this show. This is similar to Cass’ face being reflected in the broken mirror in Raps’ old tower.

anyways, thanks for reading <3 this is a product of someone who couldnt sleep  so i apologize for any inconsistencies. i’ll update this if i find anything else.

[aro-throughyourchest]

LIES

Chapter 5

WORD COUNT: 1,168

WARNINGS: None

INSINCERE AU

Varian’s too tired to deal with Hugo

.

First Chapter - Previous Chapter - Next Chapter

Hugo pushed open the door to see Varian glaring at him. Varian had changed into a new set of clothes, but Hugo, unfortunately, did not have a spare set, so he got stuck with drying manually, leaving his clothes rather wrinkly.

He laid down on the room’s second bed and huffed. He looked at Varian and scowled. Varian looked back at him and groaned.

“Ugh, how long do you think this rain’s gonna last? The faster I can get away from you, the better.”

Hugo scoffed.

“I could say the same... I don’t wanna room with the guy who SLAMMED MY HEAD IN WITH A BAG!”

Varian sighed exasperatedly before defending himself for the second time. “The middle of the night in the woods is VERY tense. Someone shouldn’t be talking to himself in the middle OF the woods where strangers can come up and hit them with bags.”

Hugo narrowed his eyes at Varian, and Varian stuck his tongue out childishly. He just walked 2 and a half miles at 1 in the morning with a huge storm outside and this moron. Let’s just say he’s a little cranky.

“Still, a sorry would be nice for my troubles!”

Varian sighed and shrugged. “Alright... I’m sorry.”

He could’ve been a little more polite about it but, again, cranky. Besides, he already hated Hugo enough, forcing himself to be polite would make his contempt worse.

Hugo folded his arms and rolled his eyes dismissively, leaving Varian a little more annoyed.

“Not the best apology, but I’ll take it.”

Varian grumbled, and Hugo waved his hand in the air. “You should be lucky to get my apology! I have half a mind to-“

Varian tensed while Hugo drawled on. He knew those sets of words a little too well, and he was sick of hearing them. (But it was always his fault if he heard them anyway. So why did it matter?)

Hugo noticed Varian’s strained look and paused. He struck a nerve; normally, he would be delighted to know he hurt someone back after they did him in, (such as with a bag or ‘guilting’ him into paying, cough) but this guy... Instead of continuing to scold Varian, he turned his gaze to the window. The rain pattered down hard. Varian’s own gaze followed, along with the pets.

“I’ve haven’t seen rain this bad since I was 5. It’s nice.”

“Where I’m from, it doesn’t rain PERIOD. It’s incredibly dry.” He fake-coughed into his hand and joked, “And so are the people,” before letting out another fake cough.

Varian laughed, and Hugo grinned.

“Co- The people where I’m from, they’re, um, a lively bunch to say the least. Always partying, talking about this, who did that, why, et cetera. Now, the small area where I lived...” He trailed off.

Why was he talking about Corona? At all? He was done with it; he left for a reason! He cut off his last sentence and said, “What kind of dry do you even mean? Like, are they boring or..?”

Hugo chuckled, not turning away from the window. “Oh, don’t get me STARTED. They’re no fun until you do something that makes them mad, then they throw a tantrum.” He caught himself and snapped his fingers. “Hey, that rhymed!”

Varian laughed as Hugo seemed proud of himself. Hugo continued, “The city is so utterly drained and colorless, you’d swear you walked into a black and white painting where someone forgot to fill in the background.”

Varian let out a small laugh and listened to Hugo for the next few minutes. (About 15?) He was probably just exaggerating and making himself look like the victim, but Varian didn’t care all that much. If Hugo kept talking about himself, maybe he could finally get some sleep. (Oof.)

That was something he realized in prison; don’t interrupt the narcissistic idiots talking about great them are unless you want to get slapped. Getting slapped by a guy in a man bun who can’t stop talking about himself isn’t the most dignifying. He didn’t think Hugo would slap him but still. Nor was Hugo a ‘narcissistic idiot.’

A few more minutes passed, and Hugo noticed it was ominously quiet. Varian fell asleep along with the other pets. Hugo huffed, assuming they had fallen asleep because of his ‘boring stories,’ (they had); he grabbed a blanket off the nearby dress and laid it on Varian. Hugo stretched and looked outside. The rain left.

He glanced at Varian and the pets and yawned. OK, maybe he could stay and sleep... Just a...

He collapsed onto the nearby bed and began to snore.

<•>

Varian woke up in the late morning to see Hugo holding a picture frame with Varian’s open bag next to him. “EY!” He shouted.

He jumped up and tripped on the covers he’d accidentally rolled himself, landing with a thud. Hugo let out a laugh, and Varian groaned, slipping out of the blanket, annoyed. He snatched the photo back, and Hugo joked, “Aw, you were adorable. What happened?”

Varian rolled his eyes and looked at the photo in his hands, a slight pang of guilt in his heart. He missed his dad, and he knew he would miss him a lot, but his father would probably be better off without him. He snapped out of his sadness to glare at Hugo.

He pointed the frame’s edge towards Hugo.

“Don’t go through my stuff!”

Hugo let out a fake offended gasp and laid a hand over his heart in shock.

“I would never!”

Varian narrowed his eyes, and Hugo flipped his hair dramatically. “I simply opened the bag and rifled through it!”

Varian trembled. “THAT IS THE DEFINITION OF-“

He let out a sigh, trying to compose himself and clapped his hands.

“OK! What’s the time?”

Varian looked out the door at the clock outside their room. “11:00. Thank Demanitus. I should get going.”

Hugo shrugged and picked up Cheese off the counter, slipping the little mouse into his pocket. Ruddiger hopped onto Varian’s shoulders.

They left and stopped at the inn’s dining room. It wasn’t the classiest thing, but they assumed that’s where the 40 coins went.

They quickly grabbed a bit of food, Varian trying to hide his face as he ordered. Hugo found this a bit odd but thought nothing more of it. They began to head out the door, and Varian had almost successfully gotten out without being noticed.

But the inn clerk glared at them. Hugo knew she was mean from last night but didn’t know why her stare was so intense.

They were a foot out the door when she said, “See you, Varian.”

Hugo glanced between the two, wondering how in the world she knew his name. The younger boy looked petrified, leaving Hugo a bit confused and honestly worried.

They shut the door behind them, and Varian let out a sigh, not looking him in the eye. (Hey, another rhyme!)

“I guess this where we part ways?”

HA!

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - Short Cuts

So the reviews for Rapunzel’s Return are taking longer then expected and due to real life complications I’ve now fallen behind in my intended schedule. So in order to catch up, I’ll be doing a series of rapid-fire mini reviews of all the official shorts that the series released in addition to the usual reviews. 

Summary: Ten shorts were released throughout the three seasons of the show detailing Rapunzel’s misadventures in Corona. 

 Check Mate

Pascal tries to get Max to play chess with him, but the horse is too busy with guard duty to play. Pascal’s antics wind up causing a fire and Max must save him. 

This short, plus the later Unicorn-y short, and the episode Pascal’s Story pretty much confirms that chess is pascal’s favorite game. Shame that’s the only idiosyncrasy that the series gives besides being the conscious of the group that sometimes gives the other characters guilty looks.  

I said it before and I’ll say again, the animal sidekicks in the franchise don’t have enough personality to carry whole episodes by themselves, but shorts like this are ok and where things like this should have stayed.   

Prison Bake

Attila recounts how he used his baking skills to break his fellow pub thugs out of prison back before they met Rapunzel. 

This just raises so many questions. Why were they arrested? What was their punishment besides jail? Why weren’t they just re-arrested later after escaping? If they were all wanted criminals before meeting Raps then why did they try to call the guards during the movie to collect the reward money on Eugene’s head? Do we really think “crack-down on crime” Frederic would pardon them before Rapunzel’s return? How do we know they weren’t just framed given how shitty Corona’s legal system is? 

Like I just need a tiny bit more context show. Two to three minutes isn’t really long enough to set up conflicts. These shorts should have been more like five or six minutes really. 

Also Ludwig the Castle Cook is also just wasted. They built a model for him and hired a VA and everything and all he does is appear in this one short and nothing else. Like I think he makes a non-speaking cameo in The Alchemist Returns or something, but that’s it. It’s a clear mismanagement of resources.  

Make Me Smile

Rapunzel tries unsuccessfully to make Old Lady Crowley smile, but it’s not until she holds an honest conversation with the woman does she find a solution. 

This is best short out of the bunch, and not just cause it stars the great Pat Carol either. 

This is how Rapunzel should have been handled in the main series proper. Which is why I screen-grabbed this whole convo. It’s perfect. 

Rapunzel spent 18 years lock in a tower. Of course she doesn’t understand different perspectives from her own cause her development has been stunted. She’s compassionate but lacks empathy. So she has a hard time connecting with others, but once she slows down an actually takes the time to listen to people she is capable of learning. 

We needed more of this; just on a larger scale. Have Raps make mistakes, have people be annoyed with her or right angry when she messes up, and then have her learn. 

Why the series thought it was a good idea to have everyone kiss her royal arse instead while she dug in her heels and consendinly took charge of everything even while still screwing up, I’ll never know. 

Hare Peace

Feldspar asks Rapunzel to take care of his “precious”. Rapunzel thinks he means a pet rabbit, and is run ragged trying to keep up with it, but it turns out he was talking about his prized cabbage instead. 

These shorts overall work a lot better than the main show. They know what they are and don’t try to be anything else. Therefore they deliver what is promised competently. They’re nothing amazing nor groundbreaking and in truth I wouldn’t want a whole series of them, but I get the feeling this is what the head executives at Disney were expecting when they signed off on the show and not whatever mess the main series turned out to be. 

Night Bite

Rapunzel, Eugene, and the animals are out camping for the night and Max gets irritated by all the bugs. 

What doesn’t work so well is the placement of some of the shorts. This particular short aired during season two and indeed that would make sense given that they are camping out here. Which why would they do that if they were still in Corona... 

Yet some of the later shorts, which also aired during season two, clearly do take place in Corona debunking that theory. Just some context would be nice show, that’s all. 

Also this short is meh.. not bad, not, good, just there.  

Hiccup Fever

Rapunzel gets the hiccups and everyone in Corona seems to have advice on how to get rid of them, but only Eugene has the solution. 

I’d argue that this is the funniest of the shorts. I legit laughed out loud at some points which is rare. 

However it does sadly prove on thing. 

Rapunzel was always a shit girlfriend, even before season three. 

Being a douche to your boyfriend isn’t funny show. 

Snowball

Rapunzel and Pascal plan to have some fun in the snow and things go awry.   

So where and when is this exactly?

Unlike the other shorts, the context and setting for this one is paramount to whether or not Rapunzel is a simply lazy or a an outright dick. 

For you see, Rapunzel had never been outside in the show before Queen for a Day. Ergo, this can only take place during the latter half of season one or during season two. 

Now season two makes a lot of sense. They’re at some cabin in the woods that was never mentioned are seen on screen before and this did air during season two anyways. If that is the case then Raps just avoiding her planned road trip like always. 

However, the last short and the next two also aired during season two and all of those do take place in Corona during season one and even the wiki states that they were all meant to take place during season one in original concept. 

Yet if that is the case then Rapunzel is ignoring Varian right now and playing around in the thing that almost killed him... 

Oh and that still doesn’t explain where this cabin is. Is it the mountain retreat that the King and Queen were going to spend their anniversary at? 

What’s really mind boggling though is that they made this short in order to reuse the character models from Queen for a Day in order to save money, but then went and built this whole set that’s never seen outside of this short. 

Like seriously who was on charge of the budget decisions in the series? 

Hairdon't

Rapunzel offers to cut Eugene’s hair but then messes it up. She spends all day trying to stop Eugene from seeing his new do, but turns out the hairstyle becomes a hit with the Corona townspeople. 

Rapunzel seriously lucked out here and it borderlines on the main series style levels of BS. She asks Eugene not to get upset before he sees what she’s done and, guess what, he is rightly upset. 

Honestly the series needed to let Eugene get angry at Rapunzel for stuff. That’s what happens in relationships, you will make your partner mad at times and that’s ok. It’s all about how both of you handle that. 

We never get to see how Eugene and Rapunzel would handle a real ordinary conflict and not just magic/ex girlfriend shenanigans that don't end with them putting off talking about it. 

Even their best episodes in season two still are over conflicts that don’t have any immediate impact on their lives and are mostly hypotheticals to them, like kids or how other people should approach dating. And of course by season three Eugene is just reduced to a doormat. 

Unicorn-y

Rapunzel tries to help Vladimir find his missing prized unicorn figurine in this spoof of old detective movies. Turns out Max and Pascal had found it and were using it to play chess. 

Ok, first off, Eugene has the patience of a saint and deserves so much better than Raps and her bullcrap here. Same goes for Lance who is tied up as well during this scene. 

But also this is another short that needed to be more than three mins long. The “mystery” is over before it even starts and the film noir parody only barely has time register in the viewer’s mind and then it’s over with. 

Shorty’s Theme Song Takeover! 

The last of the shorts aired after the show had ended as part of the Disney Channel’s on going promotional gimmick “Theme Song Takeover!” 

Shorty finds Rapunzel’s journal and sings his own version of the show’s theme song, “Wind in my Beard”. 

It’s ok. 

All of Disney’s animated shows for the 2019/2020 line up has done one and some are funnier than than this and others not so. The Shorty one is pretty middle ground but what makes it work is that Rapunzel is completely oblivious to what’s going on and only Shorty, always the anomaly of the series, can perceive the fourth wall. Thus proving he was never really human. 

As for placement, we know it’s season three cause of Rapunzel’s dress and they’re mostly likely inside the Snuggly Duckling right now. So just slot it in wherever you see fit. 

Conclusion 

That’s it for the shorts. The rest of Rapunzel’s Return should be up later this week and then hopefully I’ll be all caught up in time to cover the next episode next week. 

[kingreywrites]

Ideal

Fandom: Tangled

Words count: 1555

New Dream Appreciation Week Day Two: Vacation

Summary: Thinking that she was focused on her sand castle, Eugene didn't bother to hide his wince, or the pain lines surrounding his eyes, as his right hand slowly made circles above his knee to try and relieve the ache. Rapunzel frowned, before getting up in a quick movement.

When she looked straight at him, all traces of pain had been smoothed out of his body language as he offered her an innocent smile.

Read on ao3

@our-newdream

Rapunzel was halfway through a beautiful sand rendering of the castle when she noticed it. She moved her head to the side very slowly, trying hard to be subtle because she knew that if he noticed, he would hide what she saw - but, there it was. Thinking that she was focused on her sand castle, Eugene didn't bother to hide his wince, or the pain lines surrounding his eyes, as his right hand slowly made circles above his knee to try and relieve the ache. Rapunzel frowned, before getting up in a quick movement.

When she looked straight at him, all traces of pain had been smoothed out of his body language as he offered her an innocent smile.

"Yes?" he asked politely, a picture perfect representation of the ideal husband - and, as Rapunzel knew, still a skilled liar.

"Eugene," Rapunzel answered sweetly, "you would tell me if you were in pain, right? Like you promised you would?"

He gulped audibly and Rapunzel's smile grew, knowing that he wouldn't lie now that she evoked the promise. He knew how she felt about them, and he hated lying to her anyway, even by omission. To be fair, Eugene was the ideal husband - Rapunzel's ideal husband - he just wasn't the ideal caretaker for himself.

He sighed, resigned. "I may have not mentioned that my leg was hurting again. A little!" he added, waving his hands in front of his face. "I can stay here more, there's no reason to worry yet!"

And yet, Rapunzel was already packing her stuff, meticulously folding her beach towel and gathering the tools that helped her build her half-finished sand castle. She heard Eugene grumble behind her, but she was frustrated with him, so she didn't try to listen and understand. Which didn't stop him from protesting again when she got up ready to go.

"We don't have to leave because of me Sunshine, I swear!"

"Your leg is hurting," Rapunzel tried to reason calmly, "we've been here for two hours already, and a broken bone needs rest."

"Then I'll get rest! And you can stay here and enjoy the beach more, since you don't have a broken leg!"

Eugene smiled, eyes warm and honest, and Rapunzel softened immediately - because that was the heart of the matter, wasn't it? Eugene didn't hide his pain to frustrate her, she knew, he was only feeling guilty to cut her enjoyment short. They had planned this vacation for weeks, trying to find a perfect opportunity that worked for all of them - Lance, the girls and Varian's schedules hadn't been too hard to coordinate, but finding a free spot for both the Princess and the Captain of the Guard? It was a nightmare nobody wanted to live through again, least of all Rapunzel and Eugene.

Then, three days before their long awaited trip to the beach, Eugene broke his leg. More exactly, a criminal broke Eugene's lower leg trying to escape, to her husband's ever-growing despair.

He had argued again and again with Rapunzel against her idea to just cancel the trip, and went to great lengths to prove to her that he could be more or less independent. However, with his cast, he couldn't do much more than sit on the beach - water was definitely prohibited, and crutches were not that useful on sand. And he kept insisting that Rapunzel didn't have to stay with him, that she should enjoy her well deserved vacation as much as she could - he would enjoy by proxy, he had assured her.

She had spent exactly five minutes in the water with the others before going back to sit with Eugene - but he still hadn't gotten the message.

Abandoning her recently gathered stuff, Rapunzel carefully climbed over Eugene's lap, getting close enough for their noses to touch as she took his cheeks in her hands. Any protest he might have died on his tongue, and she was proud to see the slightly flustered - if definitely interested - look on his face. Her hair fell a little over his face, blocking out the sun and giving them a frail impression of privacy, while also tickling him.

"Eugene Fitzherbert," she whispered, revelling in his little exhale as his eyes seemed unable to leave hers, "I wanted this vacation because I wanted to spend my time with you. I don't care about the sea. I don't care if we go on adventures for a week straight or if we stay playing scrabble in your room all day long-"

"You do love scrabble," Eugene interrupted with a grin, and Rapunzel laughed, her forehead finally touching his.

"Yes, I love scrabble. And I love you," she added, not to be distracted from her original point, "so let's go back to our room together, because I won't like my time off if you're in pain during it."

Eugene sighed, but his smile betrayed the fact that Rapunzel's words worked. His hand went to put a strand of Rapunzel's hair behind her ear gently, taking the chance to slowly stroke her cheek and guide her to his mouth. Her lips brushed his softly and, as always, she couldn't contain the surge of warmth lighting up her heart - she pressed forward, her fingers passing through his locks to bring him even closer. She shifted and he gasped, but she recognised immediately that it wasn't from enjoyment.

"Oh!" She jumped off his lap in one swift movement, Eugene too taken by surprise to keep her there. "Your leg!"

"My leg," Eugene echoed with a pout - he was starting to grow tired of his damn broken leg, especially if it got in between his kisses. He had to admit that it was hurting more and more as time went by though - and Rapunzel could clearly see the little clues of his pain escaping his notice.

She put her beach bag on her left shoulder and offered her right hand to Eugene, helping him get up. They had foregone the crutches because they did little in the sand, so Eugene had to hobble unsteadily back to the cabin Rapunzel's parents had lent them - which, thankfully, wasn't too far, because he was already leaning heavily on his wife when they finally reached the deck.

It took some more manhandling - and a quite awkward if sexy shower - before they were both sitting on the bed, as sand-free as one could get. Eugene, who had insisted on taking the shower before he took any of the plant based remedies the castle doctors had given him, didn't exactly regret his decision, but he certainly felt its consequences fully. Even sitting wasn't comfortable, right now.

"Ready!" Rapunzel exclaimed, her still wet hair clinging to her head as she extended the weird and smelly plant concoction Eugene was supposed to drink. She had taken a special interest in medicine these last months, delighted to be able to combine both her cooking skills and her science skills, while experiencing healing in an another form than magical abilities.

"Ugh," Eugene groaned, taking the bowl in his hands, "I hate this."

"It's good for you."

"Doesn't smell like it."

"It'll make the pain better!"

"And then it'll put me to sleep, so I won't even enjoy the pain-free time," he retorted, before meeting her pleading eyes. "Okay, okay, here goes."

Rapunzel tried not to laugh at the funny faces Eugene was pulling, but it was hard. She felt bad, sure, and she hated seeing him in pain, but she knew that this particular medicine wasn't as disgusting as her husband made it out to be. She took the bowl once he finished and, after some coaxing, she managed to convince him to lie down completely on the bed with her.

"That's unfair," he breathed as she leant over him, "you know that this will make me fall asleep for sure."

She hummed, and settled back on the arm he had extended toward her, not afraid to snuggle him since his broken leg was on his other side. "Maybe my ideal vacation is taking a nap with you."

"Don't lie, your ideal vacation is going to see the glowing ice caves in Arendelle."

"Alright, you got me, that still sound like the coolest thing ever!" Rapunzel gushed, drawing a tired laugh from Eugene. "But I still want to do it with you. My ideal vacation is you, Eugene Fitzherbert" she said, bopping his nose to support her argument.

He smiled, and a comfortable silence settled between them. From her position, Rapunzel could hear the steady and reassuring beating of his heart and could feel the rising and falling of his chest - getting slower and slower as the medicine took fully effect and made him groggy enough to fall asleep at four in the afternoon. Watching him at his most relaxed, his most peaceful, knowing that he was trusting her fully to be open and vulnerable with her - that was still the best sight she could ever imagine, better than Arendelle's glowing caves or even the lanterns.

"You're my ideal vacation too," he mumbled suddenly, with his eyes still closed and his body still completely limp - and Rapunzel knew it wasn't an afterthought, but a sign that she was always his last thought at night and his first in the morning.

Rapunzel smiled against his neck and quickly followed him into slumber.

[whitecatindisguise]

Strangle

So, I got inspired again. Thank you @wheredomelodiescomefrom for creating yet another amazing art (which you can find here).

------

"Cassandra, please!" Varian begged, running up to the woman and grabbing her wrist. "You don't have to do this."

"You are wrong." She snarled and yanked her arm free. "I HAVE TO do this."

"Cass, I know what it's like. I've been there." The boy tried to persuade. "But becoming the villain is not-"

"Is that what you think I am?!" Cassandra snapped and pushed him away.

He backed away, almost tripping on his legs. His eyes widened as the woman came closer, rage in her eyes.

"Ca-Cass. I just want to help!" He cried, and flinched, when his back hit the wall.

The blue-haired woman stopped only inches before him, looking over his smaller body. His terrified eyes locked on her enraged ones.

"I don't need your help!" She shouted, clenching her fist.

The tower rumbled and Varian tensed, eyes darting around in panic. Cassandra grabbed him forcefully and he yelped in pain and surprise.

"Don't move." She hissed but she didn't really have to say it. His mind went blank, body frozen in terror.

Something closed around his neck and his eyes widened, hand subconsciously reaching towards it. He froze again, when his fingers met a rough, spiky surface instead of skin.

"Cass, what-" He started but the woman closed her fist and suddenly something squeezed around his neck.

His eyes went wide, breathing hitched as he tried to pull off the rocks. They pushed on his windpipe, cutting out the oxygen.

He went into complete panic mode, wheezing and clawing at the collar around his neck. Blank spots danced at the corner of his vision, a sure sign of the lack of air.

He fell down, still desperately trying to pry off the rocks. The hold was getting tighter and tighter, less oxygen getting to his lungs. And the fact he was hyperventilating wasn't helping the case.

Then, as sudden as it started, the squeeze receded and he gasped for air, panting heavily. His ears rang, sound muffled and vision blurred.

Cassandra was saying something but he couldn't understand a word. She must have noticed that, because she gave a frustrated huff and created more stones, trapping the exhausted alchemist.The last thing he remembered before finally losing consciousness was the feeling of wind tugging on his hair.

~~~~~~

“Use the Sun to see the Sun? What does that even mean?!” Varian let out an exasperated huff and threw his goggles and scroll. The parchment, luckily, got stuck on one of the bars of his cage, goggles hanging from another spike.

He crossed his arms and sat back, leaning over the rock surface. A ray of light caught his attention and he looked at the scroll. The sun was being reflected in the glass from his goggles, revealing hidden text on the other side.

His eyes widened with realisation and he scrambled closer, a geeky smile appearing on his face.

“Of course! The incantation was hidden with photochromic ink! Demanitus, you genius!” He cried out happily, admiring the parchment.

He was so invested in deciphering the words, he barely noticed someone calling his name. He turned and squinted his eyes, noticing long blonde locks of one of two figures standing in the entrance to the tower.

“We’re going to get you out, kid!” Eugene called and the boy’s eyes moved to the scroll. He took a moment before answering.

“Not now! I’ve found the final incantation! It was hidden with photochromic ink! Obvious, right?” He called back, letting out a small chuckle. The grumble from the opening told him they weren’t that much interested as he was. “But I need the constant ray of light to read it. Something like prism or...”

“Crystal?” Rapunzel asked and he saw her taking something out of her bag. Eugene seemed to be genuinely surprised and pleased.

The two exchanged few words, before the man kissed Rapunzel on the cheek and started to make his way towards the alchemist’s cage.

Varian was looking between Eugene and the sun, anxiously waiting for him to finally deliver the crystal. The sun has almost set and they needed to hurry.

“Eugene, the sun is almost gone!” He called out and saw the man wobble and fall, barely grabbing the rocks to stop himself from falling.

“I’m going as fast as I can, kid.” The brown-haired man grumbled in response and shuffled closer, reaching out his hand towards him.

Varian quickly caught the object and tilted his head as he noticed it being a ring. An engagement ring, to be exact. He decided to not dwell on it, turning to his work.

Eugene gasped sharply behind him.

“Kid, what is that?!” He asked and Varian sent him a confused look.

“It’s Demanitus scroll, Eugene.” He replied, not sure why the man sounded so terrified.

“No, that’s- I know it’s Demanitus scroll!” Eugene’s eyes wasn’t on the parchment, but rather on... “What do you have around your neck?”

Varian froze for a moment, before one of his hands slowly rose to reach the questionable part. His eyes widened in realisation as fingers brushed the rough surface. Oh, right. The collar.

“That’s...” He trailed off, looking away. What should he say? That Cassandra put a collar of black rocks around his neck? That she tried to strangle him with it?

“Did Cassandra do that?” Eugene asked and Varian looked away, opting to focus on the incantation. “No, of course she did. No way you did it yourself. It’s made of black rocks, for Sun’s sake!”

“It’s working!” Varian shouted happily, for a moment forgetting about the collar around his neck.

He cried out, when the scroll caught fire. He wasn’t paying attention and the concentrated beam of light wavered too long in one spot. He scrambled with one hand for the paper and pencil, writing down the incantation as fast as he could.

He let go of the last piece of scroll, sighing in relief at the piece of paper with written down final incantation.

“I got it!” He gave the man a toothy grin and Eugene smiled in response, before his eyes fell on the boy’s neck again. The former thief frowned, smile wavering.

“What happened?” He asked, eyes full of worry. Varian looked away.

“I... I tried to talk to her but...” He reached to tug on his gloves, the collar suddenly seeming to suffocate him. “I think I only made her more mad.”

“Kid, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Eugene reached through the bars and put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. He seemed to want to ask something else, but then the cage shook and moved back towards the tower.

“Eugene?” Varian’s eyes were filled with fear. Eugene grit his teeth and reached out his hand for the boy to hold onto.

“Stay close, kid.” He said, before they were pulled inside.

Only moments later Eugene was pulled away, encased in black rocks, Cassandra squeezing the man mercilessly. Varian looked around and noticed Rapunzel pinned to the wall just few feet to his left. His eyes fell on the note he still held in one hand.

“Rapunzel!” He cried, reaching out the hand with the note through the bars. “I have the final incantation! You have to-!”

His words were lost as the collar suddenly tightened, pushing on his windpipe. The note fell from his hold as he struggled to breathe.

“Varian!” Rapunzel and Eugene both cried out, as the boy lay on the floor, wheezing and clawing at the collar.

“Rapu... the inca... plea...” He mumbled, not able to get out a coherent sentence as he got less and less oxygen.

“Cass! Stop!” Rapunzel cried, eyes watering.

His vision was blurring, sounds muted. He felt like he was being held underwater. Unable to breathe. Unable to hear. Unable to see.

So this is how I’m going to die?, he thought as it was harder to keep his eyes open. He thought he saw something grabbing the note from the floor, but he might have as well been hallucinating.

And then, the hold on his neck loosened. He gasped, taking deep breaths, filling his lungs with oxygen.

“Kid! Varian!” He heard Eugene call out to him with terror in his voice. “Varian!”

“I... I’m okay...” He somehow managed  to reply, voice raspy. He rolled to his back, staring at the ceiling, breathing heavily. “I’m okay.”

Eugene opened his mouth to say something more but a sudden explosion startled them both. Varian looked up to see Rapunzel and Cassandra stuck in a duel, two coloured energies clashing with each other.

The wind picked up and suddenly there was no cage holding the boy in place. He started to move towards the ridge and his eyes widened in terror. He didn’t even notice the collar crumbling away, too focused on his body sliding away.

“Eugene!” He called out frightfully. Then, before any of them managed to react, he was pushed away and fell.

~~~~~~

They were back at the bottom of the tower. The moment Eugene and Rapunzel walked through the door, they ran up to the alchemist and locked him in a tender embrace. It took only a moment, but when he was wrapped in a tight hug, the dam finally broke.

The kidnapping, the drugging, the collar and being strangled, being locked up in a cage hundreds of metres above the ground, strangled again and finally falling to his death. It all came back at once, and he teared down, desperately holding to the two adults.

He didn’t know how long was he crying. At some point Lance, Catalina and Kiera joined in, all lovingly embracing him, as he cried his eyes out. When he finally had no more tears, he slowly released the two adults he took hold to.

“Better now?” Rapunzel asked softly and he nodded, wiping the last of the tears from his eyes.

“Sorry...” He mumbled, eyes downcast. His hand subconsciously went to his neck, startling when he actually managed to touch it.

“Erm, you might consider wearing higher collars for some time.” Eugene said as he eyed the boy’s neck. “Or a scarf.”

“That bad?” Varian asked and Eugene stared for a moment before nodding. The boy sighed tiredly.

“Dad’s going to have a fit.” He said and chuckled nervously.

“Want me to come with?” The man offered and Varian smiled in response.

“Nah, I’ll figure something out.” He replied. “Not the worst of the injuries I had over time.”

“Kid, that’s not reassuring.” Eugene shot him a concerned gaze and the boy laughed.

------

So... I didn’t really include the handcuffs from the pic. I tried, I really did. But they didn’t make any sense to the idea I came up with. Hope it’s not that much of a trash. Not my best but... I hope you enjoyed it.