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Eugene had no reason to be this worried. Besides, you know, how Rapunzel had run away somewhere without telling anyone first thing in the morning. Or how some kids were talking about some "ghost" they had encountered that sounded scarily like Gothel, or how Cass-no, Cassandra now, was nowhere to be found, or how it had been hours and Rapunzel still wasn’t back. Nope, Eugene was fine; Rapunzel could handle herself; the sun was going down and Rapunzel was still missing but that was fine. Of course.
Maybe he had some right to be worried.
Maximus cantered up against his side, snorting harshly. It would've seemed dismissive, almost angry to anyone else, but well. When you know a guy.
"Still no sign of her, huh?" The horse gave him a look and snorted again, shorter this time. Well, obviously.
"'Don’t give me any of your sass," Eugene looked to the horizon. Still no golden-haired girls in sight. He fiddled a bit with the sword strapped to his side, face slipping into a small frown. "I'm going to go check on the perimeter again.
Maximus tossed his head to the side. I'll take the right. Eugene nodded, and began to head to the left.
Corona was eerily quiet, most of the children and townspeople having moved back to their houses for the night. The kids had been more subdued, anyways, thanks to the whole 'ghost' thing from the morning, and most Coronans were still wary after Cassandra's whole episode on his birthday. Eugene shifted his sword over, making it a bit easier to grab. He didn’t want to fight Cassandra, but he would if he had to. Besides, Rapunzel never went out for so long without telling him. She could've been in trouble.
He really hoped she wasn't in trouble.
Eugene squinted; he wasn’t sure, but there seemed to be someone walking along the path back into the town. Moving into a fast walk, he tried to get a better look against the glare of the sun.
"Rapunzel?"
The figured looked up, and then started moving faster. Eugene broke into a run; coming closer, he could tell the purple dress and golden hair that meant his Blondie. Rapunzel's steps were heavier than usual, lacking their usual spring, and her hair was put up much messier than she usually would. She seemed unusually pale, as well, and she was too far in shadow for him to tell if she was injured or not.
"Hey, Sunshine," he reached towards her to pull her a little closer to him, heart leaping in his throat at her face. She was wearing the carefully blank expression she had worn so often when she had just gotten back, when she was feeling too much anguish or pain to muster up a happy face but didn't dare allow herself to feel enough to seem like a nuisance to Gothel. He cupped her face gently, waiting for her to come back into the moment enough to recognize that he was there. "Hey Rapunzel, can you look at me?"
Pascal came crawling onto her shoulder from behind her neck, chittering softly. Pulling Rapunzel into his arms, Eugene could feel that she was trembling. He scanned her for injuries, mind jumping to the worst. "Rapunzel, are you hurt?"
"I'm fine," she pushed him back slightly, shaking her head. Pascal immediately began to squeak a little louder in protest. "I'm ok."
Yeah, no. "Rapunzel, what happened?"
Her teeth clenched for a moment before she forced herself back into that awful neutral look again, and she hugged herself tightly. "Nothing. It's ok."
Pascal did not like that, as he hissed loudly and began gesturing at Eugene. His head turned a bright teal as his body shifted to black, and Eugene stilled.
"You saw Cassandra?"
"I said it's fine, Eugene," Rapunzel said, shaking even harder. She was definitely paler now that they were so close, he noted, and her eyes seemed ever so slightly out of focus.
"Blondie, you don’t look very good," he said simply, not wanting her to become even more overwhelmed. Pascal was still chittering at him, acting out something big and apparently scary. Some sort of creature? "Are you sure you're not hurt?"
Rapunzel shook her head, though not without a slight moment of hesitation. "Cass didn’t hurt me, Eugene."
"Come on," he said anyways, because the slight hesitation was enough to tell him all that he needed to know. "We're going to the medical wing." He raised a hand to call down a guard so he could carry Rapunzel to the castle as soon as possible, because even if she didn’t seem physically damaged, he knew that there was plenty Cassandra was capable of that wouldn’t show up to his untrained eye. Rapunzel caught his hand, eyes blazing.
"Don't," she half-yelled, and he let his arm go limp. Her eyes had just the barest hint of red to them, like she'd been crying.
"Rapunzel, you're hurt."
"I'll be fine, Eugene," she said, and a shaky breath rocked her frame. "It's just some aftereffects of the poison. They'll be gone by the morning."
What. "She poisoned you?"
She seemed to realize her mistake as her eyes went wide, her words fumbling over themselves in a hurry. "No! She didn’t, I mean, it was just poison gas, no she didn't make the gas, we were just trapped in a cave with poison gas, well I mean I was trapped in the cave, I mean she le-"
Rapunzel cut herself off, taking a few deep breaths. "Cass didn’t do anything. She wouldn't do anything."
Pascal punctuated the statement with a harsh hiss, and Eugene turned to him instead. "Pascal, did Cassandra hurt Rapunzel?"
"Eugene!"
The chameleon snorted and nodded swiftly.
"She was just angry, Eugene," Rapunzel said, as if that would make it all better. "Zhan Tiri has been manipulating her. She set up a trap, I played into it; I should've known better than to think it would've been that easy."
"That doesn't mean she can hurt you, Sunshine," he moved to hug her, but she backed away, an increasingly wild look in her eye.
"And I should've known that Zhan Tiri would plant that last mirror, and of course Cass would get angry, anyone would in that situation, and I just happened to be in the way, that's all. She didn't even hurt me or anything, she just left me there, she could've done worse, she isn't lost yet Eugene she isn't."
"She left you?"
"I mean yes, but she just needed space Eugene she thought I betrayed her it's not her fault-"
"She left you," he says, trying to take deep breaths. Focus, Eugene. "She left you behind in a cave full of poison gas-"
"Well she blew up the entrance, actually, but Eugene you have to understand, she was so hurt, I should've seen it earlier, should've helped her-"
"She blew up the entrance?"
"I should've been there for her, helped her with her dreams, not pushed her aside for my own destiny! If I'd just been there for her then none of this would've happened-"
"She left you to die, Rapunzel!"
She flinched back at his shout, hands flying up to protect her face. He backed away, immediately feeling guilty about how he had raised his voice. "Raps…"
She wiped at her face, pressing the heel of her hand into her eyes. Eugene moved towards her slowly, carefully easing her hands into his. “Hey Sunshine, I’m sorry.”
She was quiet for a long while before speaking again, her voice soft. “Why do I keep hurting people until they leave?”
“Oh Rapunzel,” he sighed, holding her close. She finally let herself cry, arms wrapped around his neck. “It’s not your fault.”
“Maybe Gothel was right,” she sobbed wetly. “Because I’ve managed to hurt everyone I’ve ever known-“
“Don’t think like that, Rapunzel,” he rubbed his hands up and down her back, brushing her hair out of the way of her face. “Gothel was wrong about you in every way. It’s not your fault that bad things happen.”
“Gothel died because of me. I got you killed. I neglected Varian until he had to turn to evil to get me to notice him, and now I’ve done the same thing to Cass,” she closed her eyes. “I’m so selfish that I can’t tell when my own friends are hurting until it’s too late.”
“Hey, that’s my favorite person you’re talking about. Watch it,” he said, prompting a small giggle from her. “You’re not selfish, Raps. Not for making mistakes or worrying about yourself. You’re just human, like the rest of us.”
He let her breathe against him for a bit, holding her close to his chest. He knew that she liked to listen to his heartbeat sometimes, especially when she got nightmares from Gothel. They had gone away for a little bit, but had come back full force after Cassandra had left them. He frowned at the thought, pausing in carding his fingers through her hair.
“Eugene?”
“You know you can be angry, right?”
She blinked in confusion. “What?”
He moved his arms so he could look into her eyes. “You can be angry, frustrated, upset at Cassandra. You know that, right?”
Her face twisted into a small frown. “But she’s being manipulated, Eugene. I can’t be mad at her for that.”
“What she’s doing isn’t all Zhan Tiri and you know that, Rapunzel,” he said simply, and she averted her eyes. “She purposely made her evil fortress where the tower used to be just to trigger you. That was just Cassandra.”
Rapunzel kept her eyes on the ground. “Perhaps.”
Eugene held her a bit tighter. “She hurt your friends, and she hurt you. I know that Cassandra is going through…a lot, but that doesn’t mean that she didn’t do things to cause you pain. You don’t have to brush that off to love her, Sunshine.”
"But I can't be mad at her, Eugene," Rapunzel looked up again, eyes wide and earnest. "Not for being manipulated. She's gonna be mad enough at herself when she comes back, she doesn't deserve to be treated like some villain."
"I know, Blondie," he held one of her hands in his. "But you don't have to constantly push down your own feelings because of other people, even for your friends and family." He hesitated before speaking again, words steady and slow. "This isn't like Gothel."
Rapunzel stilled. "This isn't about Gothel."
"Raps," he began, wincing when she flinched at the nickname. "Those eighteen years in that tower are going to keep affecting you. You don’t have to pretend that you're ok after everything you went through with Gothel."
"…don’t I? Everyone already knows that I'm not…normal," she whispered. "They don't need to see that I'm messed up too."
"You're not messed up, Rapunzel. But you don’t have to keep a smile on your face all the time, or be afraid that we're going to blow up at you just because you're not happy."
"I still miss her, sometimes. I miss the tower," she laughed mirthlessly. "I miss my kidnapper and the place where I was imprisoned for eighteen years. How messed up is that?"
"Rapunzel-"
"I have to be happy, don’t I? Because nobody wants a whiny pest of a child. Because children are meant to be seen, not heard, because I've already caused so much trouble and it would be so selfish to create more, wouldn’t it? Because I've already driven off Cassandra and sooner or later you're going to leave too-"
He held her to his chest, letting her sob into his shoulder. On her back, Pascal cooed softly before disappearing into the folds of her dress.
"We're not going to leave, Rapunzel. I'm not going to leave. You don’t have to be happy all the time. You're not a pest, you haven't created trouble for us, and we want to help you. We're going to be ok, alright?"
It could've been an hour later when her sobs had finally slowed to a stop, the two of them sitting in the grass on the border of the town. The sun had already gone down; Maximus had finished his rounds a while back, and he had elected to stand guard over them from the side.
"You back with me, Sunshine?"
Rapunzel finally let her face rise from where it was pressed into his shirt, her face red and splotchy from crying. He smiled softly down at her, hand still carding through her hair. Even in the dim lighting, her eyes were sad, vulnerable. The all-too-familiar urge to bring Gothel back just so he could scream at her rose within him, but he tamped it down. Rage against that woman wouldn’t be of any help at the moment.
"Sorry, Eugene."
"Don’t be sorry, Rapunzel. We all need a good cry sometimes, yeah?" He stood up carefully, back aching. "'Sides, you’ve been through a lot in the last few weeks."
He walked slowly towards Maximus, who was still watching them sternly, a worried look in his eye. Eugene tossed his head a little towards the castle, and Maximus snorted. Is she ok? Eugene's lips pulled into a thin line.
The horse dipped his head a bit. She'll be alright.
"I can get on myself, Eugene," Rapunzel moved to come down. "We should probably head back."
Eugene hummed in response, helping her onto Maximus's back. He usually would've stood back, but he had a feeling she would need some extra support tonight, especially after what had happened in the cave. At the thought, he frowned. "You are going to go to the medical wing with me, right?"
"Eugene…"
"Just for my peace of mind, Blondie." He swung up behind Rapunzel, taking hold of the reins as Max began a fast walk back to the castle.
She leaned against him slightly, despite herself. "Ok, I guess. I will."
The night was quiet, the early stars twinkling against a dimming night sky. Pascal crawled out from his hiding place between Rapunzel's hair and her neck, spiraling up her braid to the top of her head. Eugene let his gaze drift to their surroundings; even in the dark, Corona was well lit with torches and fireplaces and lanterns. The warm flickers of nearby fires reflected in Rapunzel's hair, almost making it glow. Eugene grimaced; it was times like these that made the absence of Cassandra all the more prominent, where they would usually be laughing over dinner or Cassandra would be watching Rapunzel paint or gossiping in hushed tones after having kicked him to the other side of the campground.
"Eugene?
Eugene looked down; Rapunzel was staring at him intently. "Yeah Blondie?"
"Cass's going to come back, right?"
Eugene paused. Rapunzel had been so intense in her confidence that Cassandra would come back, so determined that her friend wouldn’t leave her the way she did, that Eugene had hardly been able to get a word in edgewise. Even after kidnapping Varian and trying to kill, or at least proclaiming that she was trying to kill, them all, Rapunzel had held onto the hope that it was all a misunderstanding, and that Cassandra would come back regardless. She had never allowed anyone to shake her from her unending faith in her friend, her Cass, no matter what happened.
At least, until now.
"…I hope so, Rapunzel. I really hope so."