Work Text:
Rapunzel's barefeet echoed off the castle's walls as she padded down the hallway. She peered around corners and into different rooms, trying to find some sort of landmark to help her be not so hopelessly lost. She was about to give up hope when she heard voices coming from down the hall.
"... Her kindness is fake. It has to be."
"And that story about being trapped in a tower? Who does she think she's tricking with that?"
Rapunzel turned and left, desperate to find her foreign room. The snotty voices echoed in her head as she finally found her room and layed down to sleep.
The next few weeks, she heard all sorts of strange and painful words coming from all different types of staff. Each insult stung, but she didn't dare tell Eugene. He would go and make a big fuss about it, and Rapunzel didn't want to make anything worse. Plus maybe they were right, maybe she was "fake".
Another week passed and Rapunzel was able to brush off most of the repeated taunts. Some of the new ones got to her, like how she doesn't care about people as much as she says she does, but soon even that one rolled off her like water on a duck's back. While she was able to brush them off in the moment and keep her head held high, at night the voices echoed in her mind and it felt like the words seeped into her skin. In the morning she expected her skin to be spattered with ink, repeating the same words she heard as she slept.
After a particularly busy day, Rapunzel was anxious to just go to her room and lie in bed. She was walking down the hall when she heard the same group of maids talking about her.
"...She's so annoying."
"And who does she think she's fooling with that smile? So snotty."
Rapunzel was about to head off, when she heard one of the maids ask "What do you think Cassandra?"
"Oh. Me?"
"Yea. You know her best, miss lady-in-waiting."
"Yea! Tell us what the lost princess is really like."
Rapunzel knew she shouldn't, but she stayed and listened to what her best (and only) friend had to say about her.
"Well..."
Rapunzel felt her breath stop.
"She is a bit sloppy. She just doesn't seem to know any table manners. And no matter how hard I try she just won't wear shoes. I have to explain to people why she's underdressed all the time."
Rapunzel gripped the books in her arms a bit tighter.
"And she's immature, never knowing how to talk to people. Not to mention clumsy. You should see how many vases that girl can break in a day! Spinning and dancing around the halls, not caring about who or what is around her."
Rapunzel's heart quickened.
"Not to mention gullible. That girl will believe anything, and I mean anything. It's fun at first, but then you realize just how naive she is and I can't help but feel sorry for her."
Rapunzel felt cold dead hands ghosting through her hair. The voice started to shift, taking on a more commanding, authoritative tone.
"...positively grubby,,,, ditzy,,,, a bit well? Vague."
Rapunzel's breath started to pick up as her hands started sweating. She held the books tight to her chest. She wanted, needed to move, but she was paralyzed with fear.
"Plus I believe,,,, getting kinda chubby..."
Rapunzel couldn't stop herself from crying. She couldn't hear anything other than Mother's voice saying "cause I wuv you." She fell to her knees sobbing, dropping the books and breaking another vase. She jumped when a familiar face with black hair and grey/green eyes looked down on her.
"I'm sorry Mother. Please don't be mad!" Rapunzel stammered. "I- I didn't mean to break the vase. Here I'll clean it up right now!"
Rapunzel didn't wait for a response and started picking up the broke pieces of porcelain. She winced in pain as a sharp edge dug its way into her skin.
"Shoot," she mumbled.
"Are you okay?" The voice asked.
"Oh I'll be fine Mother. I'll just heal it real quick and everything will be okay. Then I'll finish cleaning this up."
Rapunzel reached back to grab her long golden hair, but her hand came back empty. She tried again but nothing was there. She blinked at her empty hand, staring at the nothingness before her. She then started to wrap the nothing around her hand and start singing. The healing incantation filled the halls of the castle, and while Rapunzel's voice was beautiful and she had sung it just the way she always had, her hand was still bleeding. She stared at it, dumbfounded, unable to realize what was happening.
Rapunzel fell backwards when someone put their hands on her shoulders. She saw the black hair and immediately started to apologize. But upon closer inspection, it wasn't Mother standing in front of her.
"Cass? Wha- how did you get in the tower? Where did Mother go?" Rapunzel asked, desperately looking around to find her mother.
"Rapunzel. You're at the castle. You're "mother" is gone. You're safe here."
"No, that can't be!" Rapunzel scoffed as she stood up and looked around. "I heard her voice telling me I was sloppy, underdressed, immature, clumsy, gullible, naive, vague, and chubby! I felt her hands in my hair. In my- hair..."
Rapunzel reached up to grab her long golden hair, but her hands only found short brown locks.
"About that..." Cass started. "Look, that was me who said that just now."
Rapunzel looked up at Cass, tears welling up inside her.
"Wha- how- why would you say that? Do you- do you really think that about me?"
"I- it's hard to explain. You-"
"I wouldn't get it. Is that it?" Rapunzel retorted. "I'm too dumb and immature to get all your jokes? Well jokes on you. I've heard what you've been saying, what EVERYONE has been saying, this whole time!"
Tears threatened to fall but Rapunzel forced them back.
"You know, I guess I am naive. Of all the people, I thought I at least had you as a friend, Cassandra." A single tear stained Rapunzel's freckled cheek. "I guess I really can't trust anyone."
Rapunzel disappeared before Cassandra could stop her. Eugene quickly showed up and knocked on her door. Rapunzel finally let him in and broke down in his strong and loving arms. Her tears splashed onto the cold, broken tile and she thanked her past for bringing here, despite all the pain that went with it.
When she was done crying she stood broad shouldered next to a love that was really something and vowed to let her heart remain breakable, but never by the same hand twice.