Chapter Text
Chapter 1 -Season 1 Episode 1: If the hair hadn’t protected them
That day had started like any other. Awakening to the safety of the palace walls and his beautiful girlfriend made Eugene happy each and every day. Little did he know that he wouldn’t be seeing anything but the walls of the infirmary for a while after the events of this afternoon.
After tailing Cass and Rapunzel to the mysterious house in old Corona, Eugene had a bad feeling in his stomach. Peering into the window, he saw a circular saw coming down towards Rapunzel’s head.
“Blondie!” Eugene gasped and ran towards the door. His true love was in trouble. A mysterious, high pitched voice exclaimed from inside, “-it’s absolutely unbreakable!” Eugene felt his heart rate elevate as he pulled on the locked knob. Jiggling the doorknob endlessly, he realized that there was only one-way in. Eugene prepared to knock down the door. Biting his lip and bracing his shoulder, he ran towards the door and his right shoulder exploded with pain. He was able to save face though.
“But I’m betting you’re not! Let her go!” Eugene confidently stated, wagging his finger at the unknown boy (who is this child?). Cass stared at him with the usual disgust and the small boy stood confused beside her. Suddenly, Rapunzel appeared, strapped into some machine, trying to appear nonchalant.
“Eugene! Hey…” she nervously looked aside as if there wasn’t a machine tuging on the long locks of gold attached to her head. Eugene sighed in relief, his posture slouching.
“Blondie! You’re okay,” he stiffened up once more “you wanna tell me what’s goin’ on here?”
Cass and Rapunzel seemed to share that look and Eugene sighed. Ever since Raps’ hair had grown back, she’d been hiding something from Eugene with Cass, and Eugene had annoyingly become quite acquainted with the look they were sharing. It read ‘I don’t trust Eugene’. He understood, he wouldn’t trust himself either with his past, but it still hurt. Realizing that he was, once again, going to be left on the outs, he decided to move on from the subject.
“You know what? I don’t care. I’m gettin’ you outta there.” Rushing towards Rapunzel, he jumped on the stage and attempted ripping her out of the straps she was tied into. His shoulder twinged and he winced, but put it off till later. Running shoulder first into that door would probably leave a bruise, but it was worth it to get his girlfriend out of this weird place.
“Hey! You’re Flynn Rider!” the squeaky voice said. Immediately, his guard went up. Eugene crossed his arms and looked away.
“No. You don’t know what you’re talking about.” His anger rose, “I’ve never seen you before in my life, you can’t prove anything!” He snapped. Eugene glared at the boy who seemed to get more excited. His eyes lit up and he began to nervously laugh.
“I’m your biggest fan!!” running towards a curtain, the boy pulled a cord to reveal his wanted posters. “See?” Eugene sighed, seeing blondie smiling at him out of the corner of his eye, he decided to go with it. This strange kid didn’t seem that bad, right?
“Hey now… Flynn Rider, nice to be met.” His signature smirk met his lips. He heard Cass’s sigh and could practically feel her eye roll.
“I used to see your wanted poster all the time you’re my hero!” Alright, this kid wasn’t too bad, in fact Eugene was liking this kid more and more as he continued fussing over him.
“Oh well ‘hero’ is a bit much…” “I’ve read every single book about you!” Eugene cringed. Oh. That’s why. “Oh… well, uhhhm you see, that’s not actually me. I just took the name from the book” he looked away. No wonder this kid idolized him, he thought he was the actual Flynnagan Rider. The same one who he’d taken the name from back when the only thing he had was his name.
As the kid began droning on and on about all the adventures he had supposedly been on, Eugene felt a twang of self-pity. He should’ve known better. No one would ever think of him as some sort of hero unless they didn’t know who he actually was. Just a nobody orphan thief who happened to save the lost princess of Corona. If it weren’t for Raps, he’d still be the thief he was before, the unwanted boy but the very wanted man.
Eugene came back to himself. “Would someone please explain to me who this child is?” He asked, confused as ever as the boy waved a green sword around.
“I’m Varian!” he knocked a bottle over, and an explosion occurred, breaking the kid’s table in half. He accidently threw the sword at his poster, which disintegrated immediately. Eugene flinched but suddenly was interrupted by a rumbling which shook the whole house. A rock fell from the ceiling and soon the rumbling stopped, but Eugene figured no rumbling, no matter how small, was a good sign.
“uh what was that trembling?”
“Trembling? I didn’t notice any trembling.” The kid shrugged it off quickly and Eugene couldn’t help but feel curious. “Oh! Yeah! Almost forgot to get the spectrometric press! It’s the only way I can read the results of the test.” Eugene raised an eyebrow at the kid. He only got about half that sentence but he was still pretty sure the kid had brushed off the earthquake too quickly. “Flynn Rider, wanna come with?”
“Ooooh, no.” He stated quickly. This kid was getting weirder and weirder by the minute.
“Hey! If-if you come, I can show you something really special, but, umm, you’ve gotta keep it a secret.” That peaked Eugene’s interest. After this whole thing with Cass and Raps, some random kid wanted to give him a secret to keep? Hah! This would show them. He smirked and his eyes lit up in excitement.
Forgetting all about the mini earthquake, Eugene said “you want to tell me a secret? Did you hear that everyone?!” he over exaggerated to make sure Cass and Raps knew what he was getting at. “Var—Varit—Varitas?” “Varian!” “A complete stranger wants to tell me a secret!” Cass looked at him annoyed while Rapunzel looked impassive, sitting upon the metal bed. Eugene smirked and walked confidently off, following the kid out the door of the house.
After he closed the door, he dropped the façade and grabbed the kid’s shoulder. “Listen buddy, I need you to tell me everything that the princess told you.”
The kid turned and began to reenact their entire interaction with great excitement, and Eugene began to slump and rolled his eyes. Couldn’t anyone just answer his damn question? He only cared because he cared about Rapunzel’s wellbeing! After face palming for a moment he encouraged the child to only focus on the important stuff, but the kid wouldn’t listen. Annoyed, he face palmed once more and continued following the kid to the smaller shed like house behind the bigger house.
As they entered the smaller shack, Eugene peered around. Lots of weird looking contraptions surrounded them. Eugene chose to lean against a table and watch with suspicion as the boy talked to himself while looking under blankets for one of his machines. After a few minutes, he seemed to find what he was looking for. It was on wheels, with three rollers wrapped in parchment, it was almost as big as the kid. His brows furrowed together in confusion; this didn’t look like it would work. But Eugene had bigger fish to fry.
“That’s muy interesante, but, getting back to what the princess said—” Eugene was cut off by more rumbling, it seemed to be bigger this time and he had to brace himself on the table behind him. He unconsciously reached behind with his right arm and he was reminded of the soreness of his shoulder once more. Rubbing his arm, he exclaimed, annoyed “why does that keep happening?!”
The kid pushed him aside to reveal some sort of trap door on the floor. He exclaimed with grandeur as he pulled on the knob “Flynn Rider! I believe I promised you a secret.” The kid looked at him with mischief in his eyes and Eugene couldn’t help but smirk.
Descending into the basement, Eugene couldn’t help but feel excited, if not nervous, for whatever secret this kid was hiding. The area he found himself in was dark and moist, it must be some sort of tunnel. He couldn’t help but feel slightly claustrophobic being in a tunnel again. The last time he’d been in a tunnel, him and Rapunzel had gotten trapped in a cave with rapidly rising water and they’d almost died. He attempted to suppress a shiver and wrung his hands, trying not to think about that horrifying moment. He’d almost gotten Raps killed, and she had barely seen the outside world at that point. If she hadn’t been so clever, and had magic hair, he WOULD have gotten them killed. There was that self-pity again. It seemed to creep up on him more and more recently. Coming back to himself, he realized the kid had been talking, and was leading them towards a giant contraption.
“-these tunnels run through my entire village, which make them perfect for my project.” Eugene shivered once more. “Uh, what project?”
“This project!” the boy gestured towards the giant machine. Eugene’s eyebrow cocked and he replied quickly, with nonchalance in his voice, “I don’t get it.”
The kid began to drone on again, speaking of something about chemistry and magic? No alchemy. Apparently, this would give his village hot water? Eugene didn’t really see how a giant, pressurized, unpredictable machine would do any good for his town, but the kid was wrapped up in his big explanation. As soon as he referenced the fact that there were five (are you kidding me? FIVE) of these machines in the tunnels below the village, Eugene knew they were in trouble.
“WAIT Wait wait. These—these tremors, your machines are causing them?”
“No no no, my machines are not causing them, the chemical reactions they trigger do.”
Eugene’s eyes widened, yeah, they’re dead.
“and no one else knows you’re doing this? Okay, listen kiddo, I’m no expert in… whatever this is… but anything that can cause earthquakes cannot be safe.” Eugene became more and more worried as he began thinking more and more about what this meant. “We’ve gotta warn people about this!” he pleaded. But the kid wouldn’t have it.
“No! We can’t! Okay? You gave me your word you’d keep this a secret, and besides, I am an expert, and this is all perfectly safe!” The kid put his hands on his hips, a sense of confidence on his face, but just then the rumbling happened again. A nail shot out of the machine, nearly missing Eugene’s head, and notched itself into the wall.
Eugene glared at the kid, but he seemed to shake it off.
Arriving back into the room with Cass and Raps, Eugene’s nerves were shot. They needed to get out of there as quickly as possible. There was no way that those machines were stable, no matter what the kid claimed. His thoughts were interrupted by a certain annoying lady in waiting.
“Sooooo Eugene.” She walked towards Eugene with a smirk on her face and he crossed his arms, she wasn’t gunna get this out of him, no matter how much he wanted to tell them. “got yourself a secret, huh?”
“If you wanna call it that, the kid ha---” Eugene stopped himself “uh huh, nice try Cass—” just then he was interrupted by the biggest rumble yet. His eyes shot open wide and he felt his heart in his throat. Nervously, he changed the subject.
“Look, Raps, I think it’s time to go. NOW” He looked nervously at the unstable ceiling above him, more and more rocks seemed to be falling as the tremors increased.
“Now? You’re kidding right? This is almost finished.” She looked at the machine’s count down, which read eight tests to go. Smiling, Rapunzel looked at Eugene with confidence in her eyes and he cringed. Walking towards the kid he attempted to act inconspicuous.
“Can we talk?” he asked, trying to keep his calm. As the kid began to reply Eugene grabbed him, dragging the boy outside. His patience was wearing thin, he wasn’t going to let Rapunzel get hurt, not on his watch and not by this kid!
“Those things down there are dangerous!”
“Dangerous? No, they’re not dangerous.” He shrugged it off once more. “I-I have adjusted my calculations for every possible outcome…” The kid kept going but Eugene stopped listening to the never-ending excuses. He face palmed for the third time that day and began to pace. Somehow, he needed this kid to realize how dangerous those machines were! How could he be so blind? Interrupting him, Eugene kneeled in front of the kid, “look, I think you’re a good kid, a-a smart kid, and you have great intentions, but I’m asking you—pleading with you! – for the love of my life and your entire village, to please shut off those machines until a seisma-quake-atoligist can come inspect them!” He sighed, grabbing the kid’s shoulders once more. “Please! Do it for Team Awesome.”
Just then, the biggest earthquake shook the ground. The houses seemed to shake, and the severity of the situation seemed to hit the young boy. Finally. The kid mentioned turning them down and ran off towards the shed. Eugene sighed, worried, and stood back up, racing inside to hopefully free Rapunzel from that machine and get her and Cassandra out of there.
“All right! Six more tests, then we can leave right?” he chuckled nervously, “go someplace far away? Really, really far away.” He rubbed his right arm fearfully with a fake smile painted on his face. The love of his life was still on that metal bed, golden hair all over the place and she smiled lightly at him.
Cassandra interrupted abruptly, “why do you want us to leave so bad?” she smirked. They both knew she had him concerned, he was going to have to tell them. But he tried to deflect, using his defense mechanism, humor.
“Ooooh no you can stay. In fact, it’d be great if you stayed” he stated with a smirk “that way, when these things blow…. Oh boy, uh, never mind” He glanced back to Rapunzel and the smile had disappeared from her face. Worry replaced it, the same worry he’d seen so many times before that always pulled on his heart. He hated seeing that look in her eyes. Cass exclaimed with confusion “Woah wait, what did you just say?”
Rapunzel looked at him with concern and he rubbed his sore shoulder unconsciously. “Eugene what is wrong with you?” He paced back and forth, not liking where this was going. Now Rapunzel would never trust him. She’d know he couldn’t keep a secret and never tell him anything! But Eugene shook his head, that wasn’t what was important. The important thing was getting his girlfriend out of here safely.
“Okay okay, you wanna know why we have to go?—” Just then, smoke erupted from the ground. That was a bad sign. Okay, time to throw in the towel Eugene, you can get used to Rapunzel not telling you things, right?
“look, I tried to show you I could keep a secret, but I can’t! This kid—” the rumbling threw him off as the entire building shook with vigor. He frowned, afraid for his girlfriend. “Varian’s got five of these huge, highly-pressurized underground machines and they are clearly unstable! I think they could blow up at any minute!” Cass looked surprised and Rapunzel looked fearful. The situation sank in and suddenly the ground outside the window seemed to explode.
“--and that minute is now.”
“get me out of this machine!” Rapunzel fearfully yelled. Eugene and Cass raced towards her, trying anything to rip her out of the machine. It began to go crazy and there seemed to be no way out. A glint of green caught Eugene’s eye and he rushed to the sword that the kid had been flailing around earlier. Swinging it into the machine seemed to work as everything stopped going crazy, but Rapunzel was still trapped. Eugene grabbed the mechanicals which kept his girlfriend stuck to the metal bed and began pulling. Cass joined him, attempting to pull her out, but it seemed like there was no way to release her.
“Eugene!” Rapunzel screamed and Eugene tried to comfort her by wrapping his arms around her protectively. The room seemed to be coming down around them, but outside the window Varian was sprinting towards the epicenter.
“Varian! He’s gonna get himself killed!”
“Get her out of here, I’ll get the kid” Cass exclaimed, racing towards the door.
Eugene went back to trying to rip Rapunzel out of the machine. The machine dinged as the last test was finished and Rapunzel yelled that it was over. The contraption from earlier seemed to be printing results, but a piece of wood from the ceiling fell and smashed it to bits. Eugene kept pulling with all his might, his shoulder protesting against the pressure he was putting on it and he gritted his teeth.
“There’s no time! Get out of here!” Rapunzel yelled. Eugene stood in front of her, “I am not going anywhere without you. I love you Rapunzel.” She smiled gently, “I love you too, more than you will ever know.”
Just then, a piece fell from the ceiling, hitting the back of the machine, releasing the hold it had on Rapunzel. She fell into Eugene’s arms, surprised, and he smiled at her.
“Quick! Let’s go!” Eugene began to push her forward, gathering up her hair as she ran towards the door. She hesitated as he was still so far behind her, but he yelled urgently “Go!” nodding, Rapunzel ripped open the door and ran outside, turning around pulling her hair out of the house, for her boyfriend to appear at the end.
Eugene watched as Rapunzel disappeared and sighed in relief. Just then a piece of rock fell from the ceiling onto his head, causing him to drop on his hands and knees, dropping the golden hair. His hearing seemed to go out, it sounded like his ears were full of cotton, but he attempted to get back up on his feet. Another rock fell, hitting his already injured shoulder, and he yelped. It caused him to fall onto his face in pain. Gripping his now likely dislocated shoulder, Eugene rolled over onto his back and he saw the shaking ceiling. Adrenaline filled his body and the pain was forgotten.
Eugene pushed himself off the ground as fast as he could and shook the dizziness from his vision. He spotted the golden hair being pulled out the door. He stumbled towards it, attempting to avoid more falling pieces of ceiling. A rumble so big suddenly occurred, fully knocking Eugene off his feet, about five feet in front of the door. Pain laced his body as something seemed to fall onto his back, pinning him to the ground.
So this was it. Dying in a random kid’s house for which he still had no clue why his girlfriend had sought out. He tried to pull himself out from under the slab of wood, but it was too heavy, and with his injured arm, he was especially stuck. He tried wiggling out, but it caused the wood to slip and fall even more onto his back. He could feel his ribs snapping and it was getting harder to breath. His sight seemed to be swimming in and out of focus. The golden hair finally disappeared completely and he thought he heard someone yelling his name, but he couldn’t be sure.
As Eugene’s eyes slipped closed, he felt a sudden lightness, as if the wooden slab had been lifted off his back. Maybe he wasn’t going completely crazy as he felt someone (some-horse? Eugene didn’t know anymore) grab him and begin dragging him by his injured arm (just my luck). His shoulder made one last protest to being pulled and Eugene swore he heard someone yell. But he was too lost to pay any attention. His consciousness was slipping and even though he thought he was hearing someone yell for him again, he had no choice but to succumb to the darkness.
When Eugene opened his eyes, he was staring up into the blue sky. He quickly closed his eyes as the brightness seemed too much for him. Slowly, his senses seemed to come back to him. He could feel his head pounding, concussion probably. Didn’t something hit his head? The fact that he couldn’t remember was probably answer enough. His shoulder was throbbing and so were the ribs in his back. Other than that, it seemed like he was okay. He was alive.
Eugene began to push himself off the ground using one arm and made slow progress. That was until a hand pushed him back to the ground. Squinting his eyes open, a familiar face appeared in his vision.
“Stay down Fitzherbert. You’re hurt.” Cass looked at him with a hint of pity and kept her hand on his chest. Eugene opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted with coughs. It seemed like his lungs were giving up on him. His ribs were giving him so much pain that he couldn’t catch his breath. When he finally started to breath again, he realized he’d been rolled onto his left side and someone’s hand was placed on his forehead while someone else’s was on his back. Drearily, he opened his eyes once more and he recognized the golden locks before him.
“Eugene. Don’t try to talk, just breathe okay? Its gunna be okay, we just have to get you back home.” Smiling slightly, Eugene’s eyes wandered behind Rapunzel, spotting Max. The horse was looking at him with concern. He closed his eyes once more and let himself drift. Something cold and wet was gently stroking his forehead. Cleaning off the cut on his head maybe? He supposed it probably bled quite a bit. Eugene unconsciously leaned into the cool and sighed.
There were people talking around him, but he wasn’t paying much attention to their words until Rapunzel said his name. He lethargically opened his eyes, meeting her beautiful emerald ones and a small smile found its way on his face once more. Rapunzel looked at him with a smile, and possibly some concern.
“Sorry Eugene, we need to figure out your injuries again before we move you.” Eugene cleared his throat and attempted to sit up again. This time, Rapunzel and (Cass?) helped him. Someone sat down behind him, acting as a furry pillow for him to lean on (Max?). Eugene took as deep of a breath as he could, feeling his ribs in his back protest.
“Head, shoulder, back” was all Eugene could muster. He cringed as Rapunzel touched his right shoulder. “Eugene we’re gunna take your shirt off okay?” She didn’t wait for an answer as Cass took out a sword and cut it off.
“Loved that shirt” Eugene muttered quietly, smirking slightly and stealing a glance at Cass. She smiled lightly, with concern filled eyes. “You’ll just have to live without it, Fitzherbert.” After they removed his shirt and vest, he heard a slight gasp. Reopening his eyes (he didn’t remember closing them) he saw the look of pity on both the girls face. A sad neigh came from behind him and he chuckled slightly. He glanced down at his shoulder, spotting dark bruises all over the arm. It looked wrong though, somehow, like it might be out of place.
A gentle hand appeared on his face and he suppressed a flinch. He noticed Rapunzel sitting before him and he leaned into her touch, her cool hand felt nice. “we’re gunna have to put that arm in a sling, and then turn you over to look at that back, okay? I don’t think there’s much we can do about your head.” Eugene nodded into her hand, eyes slipping shut once more.
He heard the ripping of his shirt and cringed slightly but knew that Cass was just trying to help. He felt his arm being moved and he winced, grinding his teeth to keep any tears from falling. Who knew a shoulder would hurt so bad.
“I think it might be dislocated.” Cass stated. “But I can reset it.”
Eugene shuttered. This wasn’t his first time with this. Now that she mentioned it, it did feel like a dislocated shoulder. And though he dreaded what was about to happen, he knew that it was the only fix for this.
“Hold him down, put that in his mouth, don’t let him move! Sorry Eugene” Cass said. Eugene just grunted, a belt filling his mouth. He bit down as hard as he could, bracing himself. Hands held down his left arm and he felt Rapunzel sit down on his legs. Well this wasn’t going to be pleasant.
“On three. One –” Cass wrenched his arm, relocating it into its socket. Eugene’s scream was muffled through the belt and he felt a tear roll down his cheek. The pain was too much and he felt unconsciousness creep in. His shoulder was moved once more, a bit more gently this time, but it was too much. Before he realized what happened, Eugene knew no more.
Once again, Eugene was waking up after passing out. His head was still throbbing, but his ribs felt a little better and so did his shoulder. Taking inventory, he realized his ribs must have been wrapped while he was unconscious and right arm was sitting in a sling. His shoulder was still sore, but it felt like it was back where it was supposed to be.
Eugene opened his eyes, realizing he was moving. He was sitting up on Max and small arms were wrapped around his waist, supporting him. He lifted his head and a voice immediately spoke from being him.
“Eugene you’re awake!” Max stopped immediately, neighing happily, and Rapunzel jumped down from him. Eugene smiled as the horse laid on the ground and Raps helped him down. She helped him navigate to a tree trunk and she gently leaned him back. He cringed as his back protested, but it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as it had earlier. Plus, he’d had worse.
A gentle hand was on his face once more and he opened his eyes, smiling at the love of his life.
“Thank you blondie” he said quietly. “I’m just glad you are alright Eugene. You had me worried back there. I should’ve waited on you and made sure you got out! When the roof collapsed, I thought you were gone but Max ran in and was able to drag you out before everything completely came down.” Tears started to fill her eyes and he frowned. “Eugene, you were so pale, I thought you were dead, you had blood all over your face from your head wound. I thought I lost you!” she gently wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back with his uninjured arm. “I’m sorry Raps, I had to make sure you’d get out.”
After their hug was over she looked at him, seriousness filling her eyes. “Once you’re back on your feet I think we need to have a talk about self-preservation Eugene, do you know what I would’ve done if you would’ve….” She didn’t finish her sentence, but he knew what she was gunna say. If he’d died. He’d thought a lot about dying during his life as a thief, and back then, he hadn’t cared. But now, now he had something to lose, and he didn’t want to cut his time with Rapunzel short. But he knew that it was better for him to die than her. She was more important, and he loved her too much. But that was a conversation for another day. Instead he just smiled and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. “I’m sorry” he whispered. She hugged him once more. “it’s okay, you saved me. Thank you.”
He nodded, happy that they had gotten out of that day alive.
“I hate to break this up, but we should get a move on, we need to get him back to the infirmary.” Rapunzel nodded at Cass, helping Eugene up once more back onto Max’s back. He had a lot of healing to do once they got back to the castle, but Eugene was glad that this time, he wouldn’t be alone.