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Rapunzel was dancing. Slowly going around the room, Eugene's arm warm against her waist as his other hand held hers, a wide smile etched on both their faces. Nothing existed besides them and the music - and Rapunzel thought her heart might just burst from sheer happiness. She felt like she was falling in love all over again, butterflies fluttering in her stomach as she lost herself in Eugene's caring eyes. He was smiling, and his hair looked so good she wanted to put her hand in it and watch how quickly he would sputter a protest. She didn't, though - it could wait until tonight. For now, they were swirling around the room, she was laughing, Eugene was beaming and nobody could do anything to burst their bubble.
Well, nobody could try - they were alone.
Rapunzel frowned, slowing down a little, because now that she was looking at her environment, the ballroom seemed foggy and was definitely empty, except for Eugene and her. She opened her mouth but, before she could say anything, Eugene dipped her, drawing a gleeful yelp from her lips.
"Eugene," she breathed, still only supported by his arms, trusting him to not let her fall.
"Usually, you're the one dipping me," he laughed, before easily righting her up and drawing her fully in his arms.
Rapunzel melted in the hug, a warm feeling of affection spreading through her body right to her fingertips. God, she loved him. She discovered how much each day, because it seemed like her love was ever-growing, never reaching a limit. Eugene would laugh, and her heart beat faster; he would cry, and the desire to comfort him was so overwhelming she wouldn't be able to stop herself if she ever wanted; he would do something weird, or something nice, or even a random something, and her first thought was always that she loved him. So she'd touch him or hug him or kiss him, whatever could happen right then and there, and she'd think about how lucky she was to have him in her life.
"Where is everyone?" she whispered against his shoulder, the thought popping up in her head again.
"They left long ago."
His chuckle made her shiver and she smiled, even though the idea sounded wrong to her ears. Who was playing the music, if they were alone? Why would they dance, alone, in the ballroom? When had she gotten here? She tried to take a step back but Eugene tightened his hug and, for a moment, her worries dissolved.
"I love you, Eugene," she said, raising her head at the same time to meet his eyes.
"I love you too, Rapunzel," he smiled.
They kissed, and the beautiful buzzing in her head once again distracted Rapunzel. The situation still felt not quite right, as if she was missing something - but Eugene was warm against her and she wanted nothing more than to forget everything and stay with him forever.
"Something's weird," she mumbled against his lips, but instead of answering, he kissed her again.
It was weird, Eugene never pushed. He loved to talk - he interrupted their kisses, their hugs, their more intimate times to quip about something, or tell her that he loved her, or whisper sweet nothing in her ears. He never stopped talking, and Rapunzel loved that about him, loved the vibrations of his voice against her skin, loved it when he asked her permission for the umpteenth time because he loved to hear her say yes. But, since they began dancing (and when was that, again?) he had barely said a word. He answered her questions, but no more.
Something was wrong with this picture.
Rapunzel tried to take a step back again, but he tightened his hold, again . This time, she didn't accept it - she pulled until he wasn't pretending anymore, his hands' vicious grip tight around her wrist. She met his eyes, but they had lost their previous warmth, his smile a twisted grimace.
"Who are you?!" Rapunzel cried out, trying to rip her hands out of his. "Where is Eugene? Where is everyone?"
"I'm here, flower," not-Eugene soothed, the nickname like an electric shock for Rapunzel.
She was queasy, unsteady, like her whole body was revolting against the situation. "You're not Eugene," she spat, her voice so loud that the music disappeared, but not loud enough to shadow the blood rushing in her ears.
"Maybe not," the imposter smiled, his eyes flashing red, then green, changing once or twice before settling for one colour for each eye. Rapunzel remembered Matthew now, but how could she be back there? She felt as if she wanted to puke, but couldn't, her body unsettled.
"Where. Is. He?" she ground out against her nausea.
"Long gone too," the imposter singsonged - Rapunzel blinked and suddenly they were in her bedroom.
He let go of her hands and she fell harshly on the floor, immediately scrambling for the exit until she realised they were no doors. Rapunzel glanced at the window, but there were bars installed on it, like when her dad had locked her in it. Not-Eugene was still smiling in the middle of her bedroom, even when the walls shifted and the space became a weird mix of her bedroom at the castle and the one back at the tower.
There was blood near the window.
She ran to it even if there was nothing to see but this brown dried out patch that she knew was blood. She looked back at not-Eugene, traitorous tears already gathering in her eyes as she met his unnatural one.
"Where is Eugene?" she whispered.
"I think you already know the answer to that one, Flower," he answered, his voice not Eugene's anymore. "And stop mumbling, will you?"
Rapunzel could feel her hands tremble as they were hovering above the blood, the feeling of wrongness returning tenfold. She wanted to flee, because her heart was beating loudly and the simple sentence made her want to hide under her sheets like she liked to do as a kid - but she wouldn't. She wasn't a child anymore, and she needed to find everyone, to find Eugene. She tightened her fists and got to her feet, glaring at the fake Eugene.
"Who are you?" she growled, the sound foreign to her own ears. The room was still shifting around them, the movement making her dizzy - she could see things from the corner of her eye that disappeared when she looked straight at them.
Not-Eugene walked toward her, exuding something dangerous, that she couldn't quite identify. He didn't seem like he wanted to answer and, when he grew close enough, she just… jumped on him. She had no plan, no idea besides learning where Eugene was. They both fell to the ground and the imposter immediately turned them over, gaining advantage. She wanted to fight but it seemed like her arms were too weak suddenly, too frail to do any damages - even when he put his hands around her necks and squeezed .
She tried to cry out, but she couldn't. She clawed at his arms, but he wasn't moving and she couldn't breathe and-
"Rapunzel?"
-he had no right to look and sound like Eugene when he wasn't, when Eugene was probably hurt somewhere and she couldn't get to him, she couldn't-
"Rapunzel?!"
-and her tears were falling slowly, unnoticed, running silently to the side of her head, and she thought she could feel something brush them off but it didn't make sense and she couldn't breathe and- and-
"Rapunzel!"
She opened her eyes with a gasp, the pressure from her throat gone, but not-Eugene wasn't - he was hovering above her, his hand stilled, and his brown eyes full of concern, but she knew now it was all a lie. Before she could think about it, she tightened her fist, putting her fingers like Eugene once taught her, and hit fake Eugene as hard as she could. This time, his head snapped back and he yelped - which was enough for her to try to get away, only noticing that she was tangled in her sheets. She tried to get up but stumbled and fell out of the bed, crawling until her back was to the wall.
Not-Eugene hadn't gotten back up, she thought, but she wasn't sure because her heart was still beating too fast, drowning out everything. Rapunzel wanted to check the window again, or the door, but something was weird - she couldn't breathe but it seemed like her memories of the ballroom or the choking were faded, slipping through the cracks of her imagination.
A chirp interrupted her swirling thoughts.
"Pascal?" she whispered, feeling the tears still staining her cheeks. The little chameleon was looking at her worriedly, before he climbed up right to her shoulder and hugged her as best as he could. Rapunzel chuckled, unsettled - her mind finally righting itself as she noticed how much more real the room was.
A dream. Or, well, a nightmare.
Eugene's head popped up from the other side of the bed, looking a little ridiculous as he only let her see his eyes.
"Are you okay?" he asked, sounding weirdly muffled.
She nodded, wiping her face quickly. "Yes, sorry… Strange dream," she revealed, her hands still shaky and her body still thrumming with nervous energy.
"Seemed like a nightmare to me." Eugene still hadn't gotten fully up and, with her dwindling panic, Rapunzel realised that this was weird. Eugene was tactile, especially when he wanted to comfort her - he should be hugging her by now, but he wasn’t, and that meant something was wrong. Her nightmare was still way too present in her mind - and with it, the overwhelming sensation that Eugene was in danger and needed her help.
"Are you okay?" she asked, her voice wobbly. Worried, she got back to her knees, the dark room making it difficult for her to see her husband. It probably was around four in the morning.
"Hum, don't freak out, okay?" he pleaded, and she would have laughed at the throwback to her own words if what she saw when she climbed on the bed didn't shock her silent.
Eugene was holding his bleeding nose, with a smile that seemed much more like a grimace as he took in the horror on her face. Suddenly, Rapunzel remembered seeing him hover above her, all concerned about her, and- she had thought she was still in the dream, with fake Eugene, that she was still in danger because of him, and…
"I punched you!" She scrambled over the bed, going as close as she thought she could, and watched the dark liquid make its way down his face as his hand gingerly pinched his smarting nose. "Oh my god, Eugene, I'm so-"
"Nu-hu, no freak out," he repeated, his free hand booping Rapunzel's own nose, "it's nothing."
Rapunzel wanted to protest, to say that it wasn't nothing because she hurt him, she punched him right in the face and she knew how much he liked it - his own face that is. God, what if his nose was crooked forever?! He would say that it was nothing, because he wouldn't want to make her sad, but he'd be devastated, and then she'd have to tell Cassandra not to joke about it because it would hurt his feelings more, but then she'd have to tell the whole kingdom too, but they wouldn't listen so she would have make a law, a law that the council wouldn't approve of so she'd have to become a dictator because she punched Eugene and she had to make it right even if she didn't want to be a dictator-
"Sunshine," Eugene whispered, sounding a little like a duck since his nose was clogged with blood, "deep breaths. No freaking out allowed."
She followed his advice and breathed as deeply as she could, before exhaling loudly. His eyes were still full of concern, and he hadn't even moaned about his nose yet, so Rapunzel guessed he had seen she was having a nightmare - and it must have been bad enough to scare him into not caring about the state of his face, so really bad. She bit her lips, and her hand went to his sleep-mussed hair, feeling how soft it was.
"Let's… Let's clean this up," she proposed, unsure, and he nodded, letting her guide him to the bathroom because he knew she liked to take charge when she was worried.
She turned the light on and cringed at the brightness, then cringed at the still flowing blood from Eugene's nose, looking so much more vivid now that they weren’t in the dark.
"You pack a mean punch," he joked when she inspected the deep bruising that was already forming, "who's the expert that trained you?"
"You wouldn't like him," Rapunzel played along as she soaked a piece of clothes, "he's annoyingly cute."
"Sounds horrible," he chuckled, wincing as she brushed his nose with the cold cloth.
They needed to stop the swelling, she knew, but it didn't make her feel better about hurting him - especially not because it was all her fault. Why would she punch him? She had been scared, yes, but she should have… She should…
"Hey," he murmured warmly, "no guilt-trip either. It wasn’t your fault."
Pascal chirped his approval from her shoulder, and Rapunzel could feel herself tear up, which she found silly but couldn't stop it.
"I'm so sorry Eugene," she said despite his comfort, "I never meant to hurt you."
"I know, sunshine, I know," he soothed. "You were having such a bad dream, I should probably have given you more space instead of standing right over you. But that's okay, we both made little mistakes, that's nearly nothing!"
"Your nose…"
"My nose will be fine," Eugene announced confidently, a grimace on his lips betraying a certain nervousness. "And, even if it ends up crooked forever well… You'll still love me, right?"
Rapunzel didn't answer, because she knew she wouldn't be able to not say sorry again - instead she kissed him, because it was a ludicrous question. She didn't think there was anything in the world that could make her not love him when it felt as natural as breathing. So she kissed him, her hands going to his hair - she kissed him, until her nose bumped into his and he winced. She immediately jumped away, despite his hand on her back trying to keep her close to him.
"Stop distracting me, we need to ice your nose."
"Hey, you were the one who kissed me," Eugene answered cheekily, wiggling his eyebrows and immediately regretting it, as the pain from his nose had spread to his whole face.
Rapunzel frowned, looking at her soaked piece of cloth. "That won't be good enough, I... We need to go to the kitchens to find ice, or to the infirmary, I don't know, I-"
Eugene took her hands in his, ignoring the water slowly trickling down their arms as he squeezed the piece of cloth. Gently, he coaxed her to slow her breathing again, until she stopped feeling like she would explode from nervousness alone.
"My nose isn't broken, Sunshine," he told her, "and it’s not even bleeding anymore, so there’s no need for-"
He interrupted himself, frowning, and raised Rapunzel’s right hand in his own. With a start, she realised that her knuckles were starting to bruise too, the colours matching the ones blooming on Eugene’s face. And now that she was aware, she could already feel how stiff her fingers were, and how jolts of pain appeared at every little movement.
"No, actually, you’re right," he announced, changing his mind, "we need to ice this. And to make sure your hand is fine."
"And your nose," she added.
"And my nose," he parroted dutifully. "Come on, to the kitchens we go!"
Arguably, they could have went to the infirmary first, because surely, they could get ice there too. However, Eugene knew exactly where to steal cookies, no matter where the cooks hid them and, somewhere between the first bite and him kissing the chocolate off her lips, Rapunzel wasn’t even thinking about her nightmare anymore.