Chapter Text
NOT FROM ELSA’S PERSPECTIVE
Rapunzel watched Elsa walk away.
Elsa might have looked appropriately aloof and regal to other people in the way she held herself, but Rapunzel could see past it. There was too much tension in her posture, a tightness in her shoulders.
Rapunzel didn’t know much about her mysterious cousin, but she did know one thing. Elsa needed help. It hurt that she hadn’t been able to give it.
And, she admitted, the rejection hurt too. This certainly wasn’t the way she’d imagined her first meeting with her cousins going.
“So, this is your mysterious royal cousin who practically vanished off the face of the earth for twelve years?” Euguene asked, rubbing his chin. “Yeesh… Somebody needs to take that girl out for a drink. She looks like she could use it.”
“Eugene!” Rapunzel smacked his shoulder playfully.
“I’m just saying, Brownie! She looks too tense. Like she’s got a price on her head and her face on a thousand reward posters, and she’s expecting any minute to be recognized and dealt the consequences.”
Rapunzel snorted at the colorful metaphor, but then continued on thoughtfully.
“She is, isn’t she? Eugene…. something’s not right here. I can feel it. There’s this…humming in my bones, like when I would sing the song.”
Eugene didn’t have to ask what song. He turned to look at her.
Rapunzel continued. “It’s the feel of magic. This place is practically choking with it. And Elsa…did you notice her eyes?”
“What about them?
“She looked….afraid,” Rapunzel said slowly. “Yes, afraid.”
Eugene cocked his head. “I guess that’s the question, then. What is she afraid of?”