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Eugene woke up feeling like death warmed over. His head was smushed against the side of an armchair, he knew he was in for a mean crick in his neck, and he was pretty sure he had been drooling in his sleep - despite his dashing good looks, that was never a beautiful sight. Cracking one eye open, his only hope that no one had seen him like this disappeared as soon as he noticed the note someone had placed on the table in front of him. Rapunzel, to be precise - he could recognize her handwriting and her doodles anywhere.
Ah, and someone had tucked a blanket around him and had taken the time to bookmark the page he had fallen asleep reading. Definitely Rapunzel, Eugene thought with a smile, still exhausted after his untimely nap in the library. He summoned all the bravery he had and finally stretched, thus feeling the full extent of his bad decision. Living in a castle had ruined him - he wasn't made for sleeping in armchairs anymore.
Although, when he first arrived here, he remembered spending a lot of time in the library to calm down when he felt lost. It had been a weird time, for Rapunzel mostly, who was only discovering life after eighteen years - but it had been weird for him too. Communication didn't come easy for him and, even if he made efforts to be honest with her, he had often sought the comfort of the library - there, alone with his thoughts, Eugene felt like he could breathe.
That was, until Rapunzel discovered about it - until he realised that for this to work, they both needed to be open with each other. They had talked a long time that night, about their new lives, their fears, their boundaries, and stuff in general, and that was when Eugene realized that being alone wasn't the way he could finally breathe. Being alone helped him be calmer - being with Rapunzel gave him a peace and an happiness he had never achieved before.
If he hadn't been in love before - and he had been - he would have certainly fallen for her all over again that night, when the light of the moon made her smile so much brighter. He knew he was the first one to compare her to the sun, not only because of the pun but, above all, because she made his life brighter and warmer; however, Rapunzel was more than that. She wasn't just his sun, she was his whole universe - the sun, the moon, the stars and the planets, but also the darkness in between, which made everything more vivid and alive. And he wanted to be there with her, for the good and the bad, the light and the dark. He knew she wanted the same - the good, the bad, and even the drooling.
Eugene scrubbed his eyes blearily, noticing that the sun wasn't even set quite yet. He had been reading some old book about laws for his Captain duties, but had clearly lost that battle. When he straightened up, he took care of folding the blanket that Rapunzel had put over him - it smelled like her, and he knew she kept it in her bedroom, so she must have seen him, gone all the way up to her closet just to keep him warm. And warm he felt, he smiled, love blooming in his chest in a familiar way. The first thing he saw on the note she had left was a doodle of him sleeping quite unattractively, which drew a groan from him - and a grin, but he wouldn't admit it, instead starting to read.
Hi Eugene!
I wasn't sure if you wanted to be woken up but you looked so tired and so cute that I didn't have the heart to do it!
I love you!
Rapunzel
He folded the paper too, carefully putting it in his pocket - he could never throw them away. His neck was still protesting loudly the position it had been in, so Eugene stretched once again, yawning. He never took naps because he thought they were scam, since you often woke up more tired than before, but he had apparently been more exhausted than he realised. Thankfully, he hadn't been expected anywhere, and if he was lucky, only Rapunzel had seen him. The other guards wouldn't let him live it down otherwise, Captain or not. Blanket in hand, he decided to go put it back in Rapunzel's room so he could then try to find her - and he hoped it would be before she had doodled his drooling face somewhere everyone could see. He had a reputation to maintain.
The trek to her room was quick, and he thought it would be an in and out trip to put the blanket back where it belonged, but when he opened the door, he immediately saw Rapunzel painting high up on her ceiling. Thanks to Varian, she had now a complex pulley system to get to the higher spots of her room, and the kid had even added an automatic safety net that could deploy if Rapunzel fell - a suggestion that Eugene made and that he was forever grateful to Varian for.
Rapunzel hadn't heard him open the door, too focused on her painting and, even from down there, Eugene could see her poke a tongue out in concentration. He could feel himself melt at the sight, because he knew he had the cutest wife in the world - and he would never hesitate to brag about it. Then, he saw what she was currently painting, and felt affection swell in his heart.
It was them, sitting together on her windowsill. But, what touched him the most was how much care she had put into painting him specifically - his hair, his eyes, his expression… It seemed like he was glowing. Like he was the only thing painting Rapunzel could see, like he was the centre of her world. To say that Eugene once thought he wasn't an emotional man; Rapunzel had sure proved him wrong every day since he met her.
"Eugene!" she exclaimed, startling him a little. He hadn't noticed that she had seen him. Before he could say anything, she grabbed a rope near her and slided down easily. "Did you have a good nap?" she asked cheekily.
Eugene wanted to joke back, but nothing came to him. She was so beautiful, as always, but he felt like he rediscovered it everytime - rediscovered just how much he was able to love her, because each time it felt more than the precedent, more than he could ever conceive. Rapunzel was his light, his sunshine, the warmth and the brightness in his life - but she was also his moon, the softness and the tenderness in his life, the gravitational pull that made his love rise like an unstoppable tide. She was his everything, and he was the luckiest man in the universe.
"Yes," he finally smiled, putting the blanket in one arm, "my nap was nice, thank you."
He opened his arms and Rapunzel immediately to hug him, her body fitting into his like nothing else ever could.
At times, it seemed like Rapunzel's entire life had resolved around the sun. Her birth, the first eighteen years of her life, and the next four too - the power of the sundrop inside her body had regulated most of the big events she lived through. She had been kidnapped for it, yes, but had saved the love of her life and two of her best friends thanks to it so, overall, she couldn't help but be grateful. For all the pain these magical powers had caused, Rapunzel thought she received five time the happiness. She was the girl who had everything, and she knew it.
Today, though, she kept thinking about the sun comparisons.
It wasn’t rare that her friends told her she was the living embodiment of the sun and, in a way, she loved what they meant by it. It was just another way for them to compliment her kindness, or to tell her that she lightened up their days - and she was grateful to be able to do these things for them. They were a source of joy for her, and if being compared to the sun meant that she was a source of joy for them too, then she’ll accept it gladly.
In the end, it was always Eugene who managed to make her heart beat faster with a simple word. Sunshine . She loved that nickname, loved how it sounded on his lips, loved what shined through his eyes when he said it - loved him, simply. The first time he used that nickname, she had felt her stomach flutter by the sheer emotion it provoked in her. She felt so lucky to be the woman he considered to be his sun, and she always knew his mind was the furthest thing away from the flower when called her sunshine - he was talking about her, Rapunzel, and only her. He never cared much about the whole destiny thing, except for what it meant to her.
Today, though, it was bothering her. Not because of Eugene - it would never bother her coming from him - but because of what Sarah, an handmaiden, had told Rapunzel earlier, when they got a glimpse of the guards training by one of the castle’s window.
“The Captain is very impressive,” she had stated, and Rapunzel had nodded with a smile, indulging in a few more seconds of watching her husband being all competent and beautiful before they started walking again. “Still, I can’t believe how much you changed him!”
“What do you mean?” Rapunzel frowned.
“Well, you know, the whole thief turned good guy story! He told some of us about it again three days ago, but I’ll never get over how romantic it is,” Sarah gushed. “He’s very lucky to have met you, your Highness, because he said you were the sunshine that put the light back in his life!”
That was it, but Rapunzel mulled over it all through the meeting she was attending this afternoon. And now that she was back in her bedroom, with nothing important to do until at least an hour, she could ponder to her heart content.
It was strange, because she had heard the same sentiment before, often from Eugene himself, but it had never sounded as wrong as in Sarah’s mouth. Perhaps Eugene was lucky, but she was at least as lucky as him - and she didn’t like the idea that, without her, he would have been condemned to darkness. Eugene was much more than what she could give him. And she was much more than what he could give her, because together, they were everything. And she knew he thought as such, knew that he called her his sun he saw how brightly she shined, but did he know she thought the same of him? Did he know that she never thought he needed her to be the best thing in her life? They both changed together, they both were more together, but Eugene was already all she could dream of and more - not just a reflection of her light.
“Sunshine?” Eugene called, opening the door to pass his head through. “Ah, guess what I have for you!” he beamed once he saw her, officially interrupting her train of thoughts.
Before she could really try to guess, he got two cupcakes from behind his back, and went to sit next to her on the window sill.
“You read my mind,” she grinned, grabbing the cake out of his hand and drawing a laugh from him. “Training was okay?” she asked, her mouth full of sweet vanilla flavor.
“Pete only nearly fainted today, so there was a definite progress.” He winked and she smiled, her heart full.
They chatted about their days - nothing particularly exciting had happened but, today, Rapunzel couldn’t even remember how she could have been scared of being too comfortable and bored if she was married. Not only Eugene could talk to her all day about the rain, and she would be happy to listen and watch him talk; but she also knew that her husband would always, even unconsciously, try to make sure that she was interested in what he had to say. That was without counting on the fact that she fell a little bit more in love with him everyday, and that marriage hadn’t changed that at all - it only heightened her feelings, if anything.
Which was also why she didn’t like the idea that she was his sun, and that he was nothing that great without her. Because that was how it had sounded earlier, when Sarah said it, and that was what had bothered her so much. Eugene was… incredible. Demanitus last words to them had seemed, at the time, really sweet, but she caught herself doubting them today.
The moon can't be seen without the sun's light. She gives you light.
Did she? Was Eugene really the moon that only shone under her light? And what about her, was she really that perfect sunshine that made everyone better only by having contact with them? Now that this seed of thought had taken residence in her head, she couldn’t help but feel that it was a complete misinterpretation. Or, at least, it wasn’t the full metaphor - if she was the sun, she certainly remembered burning too bright and too quickly, until Eugene cooled her down. She remembered discovering the real world for the first time in eighteen years, and she remembered wishing she could do it all at once, until Eugene helped her realise that she wouldn’t enjoy anything if she was exhausted. He was her anchor just like she was his, her savior just like she was his, her light just like she was his. She might give him light, but he gave her so much love in return that she refused to believe that he would only know darkness without her. He had too good of a soul.
“You okay? You seem deep in thought,” Eugene smiled, his brown eyes shining gold under the sunset light.
Rapunzel tried to form an answer but, before she could, he got closer to her face and, gently, stroked his thumb over the corner of her mouth - and she realised that, married or not, she still felt butterflies in her stomach because of the warmth of his smile and still shivered at the softness of his touch.
“Sorry,” he said cheekily, not sounding sorry at all, “you had frost on your cheek.”
Well, the only correct answer to that was to kiss him - so she did. She put her arms behind his shoulders to press even closer to him, feeling his own warm hand going to her back to stabilise them. Her hands were colder, though, and she didn't hesitate to slip one in his collar to draw a startled gasp out of him, just enough for her to slip her tongue between his lips. (He was happy to reciprocate.)
“Wow,” he breathed when they finally separated, Rapunzel still in his lap and her hands still around his neck, “I'm not saying that I'm not loving this, but what brought it on?”
Their breaths were still mingling together, and Rapunzel, from her position, could see every details of his face. The sky outside the window was orange now, and it only highlighted the blush she had brought to his cheeks, and the disarray of his hair, and the softness of his skin. Most of all, it highlighted his eyes, highlighted it until it seemed to hold tiny specks of gold in them - until it made his love shine through brighter than any star.
“You're my sun, Eugene,” she finally answered - it puzzled him, but then she kissed him again, and he forgot about it. Rapunzel didn't forget, though. She couldn't forget what she had finally understood, because he gave her light too - he made her world a brighter and better place everyday, and she loved him for it.