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kingreywrites · 5 years ago

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Eugene Appreciation Week Day Seven: Birthday

Summary: Throughout his life, Eugene was confronted with the concept of birthdays, and the fact that he didn't have one, being an orphan and all. He didn't care, anyway - birthdays were dumb.

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@fishskiin

Note: On this last day of the EAW, I wanted to thank once again the people who organised it, because they are awesome! I loved participating and seeing all the other partcipations, so thank you so much!!

Eugene was four, and he was jealous. Today, Erica - an older girl who was mean to everyone - got the right to not do any of the chores, and had an extra serving at dinner. When he asked miss Hannah about it, she answered curtly that it was Erica's birthday and, as such, she deserved to have a nicer day than usual.

Eugene thought it was awfully unfair. He was sure that he never had a birthday and, anyway, who decided which kid got the right to have one? Because Eugene would like a word with them, Erica definitely didn't deserve it. She was insufferable. She was always accusing someone else of her mistakes, and Eugene had already been punished twice in her place, when he did nothing!

"Give it back!" Eugene demanded, on his tiptoes as he tried to reach his pillow, that Erica was holding high above his head. She laughed and it was an awful shrilling sound. "Erica! Give it back or I'll- I'll…"

"You can't do nothing, Eugene," she smiled, "it's my birthday, they won't get mad at me."

"Well I don't know who decided that, but that's dumb!"

That was apparently the wrong thing to say, because she laughed even harder, even letting go of the pillow - and Eugene immediately gathered it in his arms, blushing since he knew she was mocking him.

"No one decides it, you idiot," she snorted, "but I guess someone without parents wouldn't know."

Humiliated, Eugene fled the scene, pillow in his hands, and tried to ignore how much his heart twisted each time someone brought that up. Erica was the idiot here, because she might have parents, but she ended up in the orphanage anyway - and Eugene believed that one day, his parents would come back for him. No, he knew they would. And that day, Erica'll bite her tongue.

He continued his little investigation though, because he was now officially intrigued by the concept of birthdays that parents apparently gave. How did they decide the date? Did it change each year? He didn't understand why he hadn't heard of this before, but he guessed that Erica was the first one to really insist on being celebrated - and he didn't like talking to others too much, anyway.

He bugged miss Hannah a week about it before she finally caved, and took him aside five minutes to explain.

"Birthdays are simply the day you were born," she sighed, tired as usual, "each year, you celebrate that day. It's not that complicated."

"But why don't I have one?"

"Well, the person that left you there didn't leave a note, so we don't know what day it is. Is that all Eugene?"

It wasn't, really, but miss Hannah was already gone. Eugene thought about calling her back, because that didn't make much more sense. After all, he didn't have a name either at first, and they gave him one, why wouldn't they be able to choose a birthday too? But, as he thought about it, he realised that they wouldn't want to have a special day for each and every kid. Plus, they already didn't have the best ideas for a name - Eugene was a pretty lame one. Perhaps it was better that they hadn't chose a birthday date.

Well, if Erica liked birthdays, it probably meant it wasn't that cool anyway. Eugene was four and he decided he didn't like birthdays.

------

Eugene was ten, and he was in so much trouble. He hadn't mean to, really, but he maybe kinda stole a little from a store. Miss Hannah was going to kill him, and if that didn't work, Arnwaldo would laugh at him until he died of shame probably. The bad thing, actually, wasn't that he stole something - he had already stole a lot of things from street vendors, even if it was only food until now. But, he figured that, with a satchel, he could store more food on him, and share it back at the orphanage, so it wasn't that bad.

No, the real problem here was that he got caught. By a mountain of a man who could probably kill him if he wanted.

"Uh, hi sir," Eugene squeaked, taking a step back to a wall, now officially stuck. "I was- I mean- There is an explanation for this-"

"Is there?" The man grumbled from under his black beard. "Let's give it to the guards, then."

Eugene paled, clutching the useless satchel tighter. "The guards? Oh no, no, no need, they're very busy being, you know, guards!"

He laughed. The man didn't laugh. Eugene stopped laughing.

Miss Hannah was going to kill him, slowly and painfully.

"Flynn!" A voice that Eugene knew all too well cried out. "Thank god you're here!" Arnwaldo exclaimed tearfully, pushing the vendor out of they way to go and hug Eugene. "Play along," the other boy muttered, before turning on his heels and hugging the man looming angrily over them, "oh, kind sir, thank you so much, you found him! I was so worried!" Eugene's best friend wailed.

Eugene hesitated, unsure of where Arnwaldo was going with this - well, except that he called him Flynn, meaning that he had to call him Lance, their recently chosen shenanigans-names. But Arnwaldo was always good at getting them out of a pickle, even if said pickle was a big muscular and menacing man who wanted to kill Eugene, so he trusted him.

"That's enough," the man growled, pushing Arnwaldo away.

"Yeah, that's enough Flynn," Arnwaldo nodded, putting his hands over his heart dramatically - an adverb that should be employed as a whole for Arnwaldo entire demeanour. "I know that you're hurting, pal, I know-"

His voice broke and he sniffed so loudly Eugene had to do everything not to burst out laughing. The glare of the vendor was enough to dissuade him though.

"Listen, kid-" the man tried to interrupt.

"Please, sir, you have to understand! It's his birthday!" As he said that, Arnwaldo tore the satchel from Eugene's hands and shook it in front of the man's face. "Little Flynn is eleven today!"

"And that gives him the right to-"

"It's also his parents' death anniversary!"

Eugene cringed, but the man kept silent - a fact that Arnwaldo was quick to take advantage of.

"This is all so tragic," he whimpered, the back of his hand going to his forehead, "they were off to his birthday party, ready to give him the gift of his life, when they were both hit by falling roof tiles!"

"Both of them?"

"It comes in threes," Arnwaldo nodded wisely, unaware of how ominous he sounded. Eugene tried to look as pitiful as possible when the man glanced at him. "And you'll never guess exactly what gift they were planning to give poor little Flynn!"

"... A satchel, I suppose," the vendor sighed.

Arnwaldo and Eugene nodded eagerly at the same time. Then, Eugene remembered himself and went back to looking sad - if a little hopeful.

The big man sighed - again. He pushed a hand through his hair, looking a lot less threatening for a moment, before biting out "Fine. Take the damn satchel if you want, but don't come back."

"Thank you sir!" Arnwaldo yelled, already halfway to the door.

Eugene smiled awkwardly and tried to run to the door too, but a big hand stopped him mid-movement.

"That satchel is going to be your gift for whenever your birthday truly is," the man said, and Eugene gulped as his piercing stare seemed to bore through him. "But kid, whatever you think you'll get out of stealing, it's not worth it."

Eugene nodded and fled the scene, catching to Arnwaldo a few streets down. His friend was laughing as he threw him the satchel, and Eugene looked down on it, the first "birthday gift" of his life. What the vendor didn't realise was that Eugene himself had no idea of when was his actual birthday. He fiddled with the satchel's material all the way back to the orphanage, even as he joked with Arnwaldo about what just happened.

Late at night, when everyone was asleep and he could think peacefully, he decided today could as well be his birthday, since, until now, he changed the age he gave to others on each new year. He didn't celebrate his birthday anyway, because he didn't have any and because it was dumb, but he could chose the date when he changed the number. It was totally not the same thing.

Eugene just turned eleven, and he fell asleep clutching a satchel to his chest.

------

Eugene was fifteen, and he was in love - well, Flynn was. Maybe.

Today was the Baron's birthday and Flynn gave him a stolen gold statuette, which seemed to please the man. Well, as much as this gruff, always angry man could be. Flynn knew that the Baron didn't like him that much, and it was shared sentiment, but he kept trying because of Stalyan - and because Lance and him didn't want to die, but that was beside the point.

They had organised a party in which everyone seemed to be plotting the murder of everyone else, especially Flynn's, but, anyway, he never managed to relax entirely in this castle - except when he was with Stalyan. Who was, for now, somewhere lost in the crowd, while Lance had been a no show, probably too busy getting into trouble.

Flynn sighed, leaning on one of the swan's statue he found pretty cool, wishing he could be anywhere else but here. Well, not quite - wishing that he could be alone with Stalyan. Speaking of the devil…

"Hey stranger," Stalyan smirked, popping from nothing and nearly giving Flynn a heart attack. He salvaged his reaction by leaning more heavily on the statue, as if it was suave move from the beginning - though, going by Stalyan's raised eyebrows, it didn't work.

"Hey Stalyan," he answered smoothly, his voice barely cracking anymore, "enjoying yourself?"

"Please," she scoffed, "you know that if I could, I'd kill every person here. Plus," she whispered, taking Flynn's collar and tugging forward, "I was missing my favourite guy."

Flynn would have answered if his brain didn't short-circuit at the kiss.

"By the way," Stalyan said, once she left him red-faced and out of breath, "I was wondering something."

"Huh?" Flynn answered dumbly, his heart still beating loudly in his chest.

"Well, I realised that I didn't know when your birthday was."

Just like that, Flynn snapped to attention. It was true that the subject hadn't been breached yet, even when Stalyan celebrated her own birthday, but until now, she hadn't asked and he hadn't wanted to bring it up. Taking a deep breath, he figured that it was time to come clean - it wasn't like he hid it because he didn't trust her, he was just a little embarrassed.

"I don't have one," he announced with a shrug, going for casual, "you know, being an orphan and what not."

"Yeah, no need to go into the whole tragic backstory," Stalyan laughed - she really didn't like when Flynn was sappy, so he tried his best not to be. "But, seriously, you never even chose a date yourself?"

Flynn hesitated. For a few second, he thought about telling her about the day he chose, and why he chose it; he thought about telling her that, if she really wanted, well they could act as if it was his real birthday and he'd do his best to bear it; and maybe, casually, he could let it slip that Flynn wasn't exactly his real name. She deserved to know, didn't she? And being Flynn, as natural as it was to him now, was only part of him - but love was about openness, he was sure, he had read about it in books.

Flynn opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Stalyan shrugged, a smirk on her lips.

"It's certainly easier to remember," she smiled, "and I hate thinking about gifts, anyway." Flynn chuckled, but it sounded strangled to his own ears - which Stalyan didn't notice. "That's what I like about you, Flynn: everything is fun and easy."

She disappeared back into the party with a flick of her hair, and Flynn ignored the pit in his stomach as he tried to convince himself that she was right - it was easier that way. Plus, birthdays were dumb anyway.

Eugene was fifteen, but he wasn't Eugene - he was Flynn, and his greatest quality was that everything with him was fun and easy.

------

Eugene was twenty-two and he had the best year of his life - impressive, especially since dying didn't even chirp at his happiness too much.

He was in love, for real this time, and he was lucky enough to be loved in return, by the greatest woman on Earth no less. Rapunzel was his sunshine, she made the world a better place just by existing, and made him the best version of himself - because, simply by being nearby, she made him want to be a better man, she made him someone he actually liked to be, backstories and quirks included.

Which didn't mean that their lives were absolutely perfect - this year had been great, but it had brought its lot of trouble.

This night, Eugene was just about ready to fall down on his bed and sleep for at least a week. Lately, his days had been packed full with concerns about Varian's turn to villainy, concerns about the King's ever growing secrets, concerns about Rapunzel's state of mind and, overall, concerns for about everything. That was without counting the healthy dose of trouble that was to be expected in their lives, plus Rapunzel's upcoming nineteenth birthday that he wanted to make perfect. All in all, Eugene was a busy man, and when he finally found his way back to his bed at night, he felt like it was his right to stay in it for his mandatory eight-hour beauty sleep.

Pajamas and night-mask ready, everything seemed to be at its rightful place - until his door was banged open, startling a scream out of him.

A manly scream. He'd swear it in front of a jury.

Scrambling to get his mask out of his face, he turned on his feet and was relieved to see Rapunzel in front of him. Then, he saw that she was frowning sadly at him, and he got worried, all thoughts of sleep erased from his mind.

"Blondie? What's wrong?" He asked, going to take her in his arms but she evaded him and went to sit on his bed. He frowned, nonplussed, and watched her fiddle with the sheet under her hands. He called her name again, making her raise her head and meet his eyes - there was a sad glint in her own, something he hated to see.

"You know you can tell me everything?" she started hesitantly.

"Of course!" He nodded, before sitting next to her and taking her hand in his. Thankfully, she didn't avoid his touch this time - instead, she tightened her grip around him, lowering her eyes. Eugene wanted to ask her what was wrong, but he didn't want to push her when she was obviously trying to get up the nerve by herself.

"And… You know that, sometimes, I may not think about doing something that's normal for everyone else? Because of-" she bit her lips, and took a deep breath. "Because of the tower and Gothel."

"Sunshine," Eugene whispered, taking her cheek in the palm of his free hand now that he recognised the guilt churning in those eyes, "yes, I know that. And I also know that you're being vague intentionally but, whatever it is that you think you didn't do well enough, I'm sure we can solve it."

Her wavering smile was hardly a comfort and Eugene was seriously getting worried about what had happened. Rapunzel still had trouble with social codes, but that translated into hugs and overeagerness - the whole castle was used to it and, frankly, Eugene didn't see what was the big deal about it. Even Cassandra had warmed up to it, and it did good to the foreign royals to receive a Rapunzel hug from time to time. Honestly, Rapunzel was way harder on herself than anybody else, but something was different here - she was worried about his reaction, particularly.

"I'm so sorry Eugene," she breathed out mournfully, "I never asked you when your birthday was."

Oh. Oh.

"And I mean," she kept rambling, "I understand how hurt you must have been, especially since you already gave me so much on my birthday but I sincerely didn't think to ask! Which is wrong of me, of course, but this year has been so hectic and I didn't even think of it and now my birthday is in three days but you never-"

"Sunshine," Eugene interrupted softly, stopping her movements by putting his hands on her shoulders, "I'm the one who should be sorry."

"What? But-"

"It's- Well, I kinda avoid birthdays discussions all together. I was happy that no one asked, but I'm sorry that it made you feel so bad when I did everything I could to not come clean about it."

Eugene sighed, closing his eyes for a second as he knew he had to tell her now. Stalyan's words for so long ago still echoed in his head sometimes - no need to go into the whole tragic backstory, Flynn - but he knew that it was different with Rapunzel. She wanted to know him, know every part of him, and it was unfair to keep the birthday thing from her just because it made him uncomfortable. She didn't deserve to blame herself for his weird hangups.

Going by her inquisitive and unrelenting gaze, he didn't think he could avoid this discussion anyway.

"I don't have a birthday," he announced, going for casual and missing by a mile. "Whoever left me at the orphanage didn't leave one, and the caretakers didn't give me one either."

"That's… That's awful, Eugene," Rapunzel gasped and he shifted, uncomfortable.

Yes, to her it probably sounded horrible - her birthdays had been a symbol of hope and dreams all her life, he knew how important it was to her and he knew how she treasured being able to make someone happy on their birthdays. Actually, he had thought that this question would pop up sooner, but apparently she just… trusted him to tell her. And he didn't. (He still felt bad about that one.)

"It's not, really," he smiled, "I can't miss what I never had! Plus, it's easier to remember," he winked.

Wrong thing to say - she looked devastated now. A determined - and quite scary - glint in her eyes, Rapunzel took his head between her hands and pulled him toward her own face, ignoring his startled yelp.

"I'm gonna throw you the best birthday party ever," she promised fervently, "or better yet, twenty-two birthday parties, to catch up on those you missed. Are you free tomorrow? We'll start tomorrow, you'll see, I will-"

"Hold on tiger," Eugene chuckled, more touched than he'd be willing to admit. He put his hands over hers and made her let go gently. "Your birthday is in three days, let's take care of that first."

"But I had eighteen of those, and you never had one!" she insisted.

"Hey, Rapunzel," he said softly, "thank you, really. No one really cared about my non-existent birthday before. But, in three days, you'll have your first birthday with your family, and me, and it's important to me that you focus on that first."

Her eyes bore right through his and she deflated, apparently convinced that he was being honest. And he was - he may not care too much about his own birthday, but hers had too been the best day of his life. And she deserved to be the centre of everyone focus that day, even her own - he wouldn't want her to be busy organizing his birthday.

"Alright," she nodded, before perking up. "You're right, anyway, your birthday can't be at the same time that mine because it needs to be yours and yours only! Oh, that means I can chose the date and surprise you!" She exclaimed, and he laughed, feeling warm and happy and - even if he wasn't going to admit it - excited at the prospect of finally getting a birthday.

Eugene was twenty-two, and he spent the night smiling as he listened to Rapunzel trying to determine what month suited him best.

------

Eugene was twenty-five - uhm, twenty-six, apparently, and, for the first time in his life, he had celebrated his real date of birth. It might have involved a lot more kidnapping and near death experiences than he ever expected, but it was still one of the greatest day of his life.

Rapunzel had wanted to propose to him so, honestly, there wasn't a lot of things that Cassandra could do to make this day bad. Eugene was just too happy.

A movement jostled him from his slumber and he blinked his heavy eyes open. Rapunzel was warm against him and her room was dark, making him notice that he had fallen asleep here - and perhaps he should make his way to his room, but he was too tired and too comfortable to care about it enough and force himself to move.

"Sorry," Rapunzel mumbled, the source of the original movement, "go back to sleep."

Eugene hummed and hug her tighter to his chest, his eyes already closing again. He kissed her forehead lightly and snuggled her, drawing a soft laugh from her.

"Best birthday ever," he whispered, and he fell back asleep with a smile, knowing that she would try to outdo herself next year to make a liar out of him.

He was looking forward to it.

#Eugene Appreciation Week #I can't believe this is over!!#it's been a while since I was so inspired!!#I loved doing this and even if I'm not always satisfied with my works I loved writing them #and just... Thanks to everyone for their kind reactions I'll never get over it :')#anyway hope you liked this!#tangled #Eugene Fitzherbert #Lance Strongbow #Rapunzel #Stalyan

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