Chapter Text
"Eugene." A voice pulls him out of slumber, accompanied by a gentle shaking of his shoulder.
He begins to stir. He's not a heavy sleeper to begin with-- something you learn fast from a life on the run is the ability to get up and out of somewhere at the sound of a floorboard creaking. This made for a few tense nights those first few weeks in the castle, waking up in an unfamiliar place each time a guard on night patrol passed. Still, a year or so later, he hasn't quite broken the habit.
"Blondie?" He recognizes her voice first, then realizes second that nobody else in their party would have a reason to wake him up in the middle of the night. He blindly gropes for her hand in the darkness. "S'that you?"
"I think I'm dying."
Well, if anything can wake him up, it's probably that. There's no rational reason for her to be in anguish, but in his foggy state, far too familiar with the reoccurring nightmares of what could possibly happen when she finally closes her hand around the moonstone, it's rational enough. Eugene swiftly pushes himself up onto an elbow and squints at her silhouette in the darkness.
Of all the things Eugene did not want to hear his girlfriend say to him in the dead of night while their caravan is stopped in an unfamiliar place, the words 'I think I'm dying' are pretty close to the top of that list.
"What?" She shushes him and brings a hand down to signal that he needs to lower his tone. They both shoot worried glances to the sleeping Lance and Hookfoot, thankfully unperturbed by the princess' late-night visit.
"I feel awful." She whispers, sitting on the edge of his bed. "Do you think it was something I ate?"
Eugene pushes the blankets toward her as he moves to sit at her side, raising his hand up to rest on her forehead. Her eyelids flutter shut at the sudden contact. "I ate the same stuff you ate last night, and I feel fine. You're burning up, Rapunzel. I think you might have a cold."
Her eyes pop open as she frowns in confusion, brushing a hand up through her messy hair. "A... cold? I do feel a little chilly."
Her confusion is endearing, though a bit disheartening. Those first few months in the castle, Rapunzel took in information like a sponge. He knows, because every time he'd see her she'd relay it all to him in such detail he felt like he was practically taking those courses with her. And while she quickly became knowledgeable of more things then he could possibly ever know in his lifetime, not to mention the fact that she's easily the smartest person he's ever met, a lack of life experience gave her an unfortunate setback every time life throws her something as mundane as a cold.
With that, there's a very good chance Rapunzel has never been sick before in her life. After all, living in a tower with only one other person makes it quite hard to fall ill, and even if the old witch managed to bring something back to her, he wouldn't put it past Gothel to take the easy way out and just have Rapunzel heal herself. Besides, out of all the lies Gothel concocted to get out of taking care of Rapunzel, this wouldn't be the wildest.
"Let's take a walk," he suggests. It's best to get her out of here to talk; dealing with a sick princess and a cranky, woken-up Lance was far from an ideal middle-of-the-night scenario. Eugene tugs the blanket from his bed and wraps it twice around her shaking shoulders before leading her outside with a hand on the small of her back.
"Rapunzel," he begins, as they settle down on the bench at the front of the caravan. "Have you ever been sick before?"
She reaches back and touches her hair, suddenly useless in this situation, and shakes her head.
Go figure. If he could make that old hag die twice, he probably would. "It's just a minor cold. It might hit you harder, since your body hasn't dealt with being sick before, but you're gonna be okay."
"So.. not dying?"
"Not dying," he confirms with a smile, although the comfort of a visit to the castle physician would really ease his nerves right now. It's a shame they didn't bring one of those along with them on this journey.
A long pause sits in the chilly air between them. "What do I do?"
He reaches up to tuck a loose strand of her hair back behind her ear. "What do you mean?"
"How do we fix it?"
"You don't," he explains. "You just gotta wait these things out. Remember when we visited the Home for Boys in old Corona last fall? And they wouldn't let us in because it was cold season, and a lot of the kids were probably sick?"
She nods.
He smiles at the memory and playfully pokes at her stomach. "And then you paid the best physicians in the kingdom to see all of them individually? They all turned out just fine."
"It's just like that?"
"Just like that. We don't have a physician, but lucky for you, Sunshine, you've got a practiced caretaker on your case. Common colds like these spread like wildfire in an orphanage, and I got pretty good at handling them. I prescribe... lots of water and rest for you, Blondie."
Rapunzel smiles, pulling his blanket a little tighter around her small frame as she closes the space between them to bump his shoulder with hers. "Alright, Doctor. Think we could add a dose of cuddles to that prescription?"
He captures her chin with a hum, pressing a chaste kiss to her lips. "I'll consult with the experts."
She tucks herself under his arm. The air around them isn't cold, but it is a bit brisk, and once her shoulders begin to tremble again and the sun threatens to peek over the horizon, Eugene pushes himself to his feet.
"Let's get you back to bed, Sunshine."
She looks a tad disappointed, but she doesn't mention it. She accepts his outstretched hands and slowly rises to her feet, catching the blanket around her shoulders just as it begins to slip off. Together they quietly make their way back to her bedroom to find Cass on her way out.
Which is delightful. If there's anything better than regular Cass, it's cranky, early morning, let's-get-this-caravan-on-the-road-at-an-unnecessary-hour Cass.
"What were you two doing?" she asks with a pointed glare at Eugene, arms crossed over her chest.
"Good morning, Cassandra. Lovely to see you, as always."
She rolls her eyes. "Eugene, I don't have energy for-- hey, woah, Rapunzel, are you alright?"
Rapunzel nods despite herself, stifling back a sneeze. "Just a little cold."
"Where did you catch a cold? And why don't we all have it?"
Rapunzel shrugs and curls up into Eugene's chest where they stand. He squeezes her shoulder encouragingly. "I have a few ideas," he begins. "Mostly having to do with running through ice-cold streams and not wearing shoes. She'll be okay."
Cassandra frowns. "Colds are bad. In a cramped caravan, viruses spread. I share a room with her and knowing you two, Eugene probably already has it."
Rapunzel's shoulders sag, from exhaustion or worry he isn't sure. Cass sighs, pressing her lips together and reaching out to squeeze Rapunzel's shoulder.
"--But it's okay. We can work through it. We've faced worse." With that, plus another encouraging squeeze, Cass slips past the couple and around the caravan to set the horses up for another day of travel.
"Ugh." Rapunzel groans. "I wanna sleep but I can't move. This is the worst."
"Few more steps, Blondie." Eugene helps her up into the top bunk. "I'll go grab you some water and see if Cass can find us a village nearby so we can find some herbs. For now, you just rest."
She frowns, not releasing her clutch on his hand. "You'll come back?"
"Of course." He kisses the back of her hand. "Always."
"Well, that doesn't sound very good."
Cassandra is standing a few feet away from him, hooked elbow still inches away from her mouth as her voice rises a pitch in defense. "I sneezed."
Eugene covers his rising worries with a grin. "Any chance it's allergies?"
"I don't have--" she interrupts herself with another sneeze. Lance, who's seated nearby, takes several scoots in the opposite direction.
"Hookfoot, you and I are gonna go into town to find some sort of remedy. Lance, look after Cass." Eugene hooks a thumb over his shoulder, signaling for his friend to follow.
"I don't need to be looked after," Cassandra argues.
Lance hums in agreement. "And I don't need to be sick!"
With a sigh, he turns on his heel and waves a dismissive hand at the pair standing behind him. He's too tired to argue, after staying up all night with Rapunzel. "Just give us twenty minutes, okay? Keep an eye on Blondie for me, make sure she drinks something."
Distantly, he hears Lance huff a sigh in defeat.
Eugene frowns when Cassandra hands the unfinished teacup back to him. Not only did it take a half an hour to locate the apothecary, it took even longer to negotiate with her for her last pouch of decongestant herbs, so he's not really in the mood to negotiate on this.
"This tastes awful." She concludes.
"I've found that if you pinch your nose, it makes the taste less terrible," Rapunzel adds, cheerful despite the congestion thick in her voice, from the other side of the room.
Upon returning from the village with the herbs, Eugene had found both Cassandra and Rapunzel bedridden with ill. Now Rapunzel, she's relatively easy to take care of. Cassandra, on the other hand...
"Put that tea in my face one more time and I'll throw it back in yours."
"Nice to know that you're much more pleasant when you're ill, Cass," he remarks, crossing the room to take Rapunzel's empty cup from her. He smiles at her encouraging thumbs up before reluctantly turning back to face his less-willing patient.
"Just try? One more sip?"
Cass rolls her eyes. "I'll work on it, thanks."
Eugene sets Rapunzel's discarded teacup on the floor and makes the short trek up the ladder to her loft. She offers him a sunny, encouraging smile, but it looks out of place amongst her pale skin and tired eyes. Pascal twitters worriedly, scurrying across her bed and up his body to rest on Eugene's shoulder.
"How are you doing?" He reaches out to pat her knee.
She shrugs and pulls the covers up to her chest. "Sleepy."
"So, sleep."
"Can't. Too hot." She shoves the covers off again.
He hums in understanding, squeezing gently where his hand rests. She is, as with everything challenging that's thrown her way, handling this quite well. "Try to sleep, for me? I love you."
"I love you," she mumbles in reply, letting her eyes fall shut.
Eugene turns to look at the lizard on his shoulder as he quietly clicks the door to the girls' room shut. "Spending the night with me tonight, Frog?"
Pascal responds with a squeak as he leaps from Eugene's shoulder to his bed, scurrying up to rest on the bedpost.
"I don't blame you. Sleep tight."
Apparently, a full night of sleep is a foreign concept to his roommates.
Eugene wakes up with a start when several bottles fall from the nightstand beside his bed, moving clumsily to catch a startled Pascal before the frog could fall from his resting spot on Eugene's chest to the floor below. Slowly moving into a seated position, he sends a pointed glare to the man standing sheepishly next to the mess.
"Lance. What?"
Lance, once he's finished collecting the scattered bottles, holds his hands up in surrender. "I was just looking for the herbs you guys bought today, I didn't mean to wake you."
Eugene rubs at the back of his neck. "Yeah. You messed up there." He doesn't miss the way Lance's voice is laced with the same congestion that's been plaguing the girls, though. He drops his frustration in favor of worry.
"Oh, man. Are you sick, too?"
"Not sick!" He replies quickly, as if he's more concerned with convincing himself of that fact. "Just... making sure."
"Ugh. Alright. They're in my bag." Eugene deposits the grumpy frog on his shoulder. "Give me five minutes and I'll brew you a cup."
"Actually," Hookfoot interjects from his hammock nearby. "Could you bring me one too? And maybe also some tissues?"
As Eugene lights a candle and turns to face them both again, he finds his roommates' noses all too familiarly reddened, with matching dark circles underneath their eyes.
Fantastic. That's just fantastic.
"Eugene? Could you bring an extra blanket?"
"And a glass of water?"
He huffs, ringing out the cool cloth he currently has suspended over the basin. "One second, girls." Eugene scales the ladder to Lance's bunk and hands him the compress.
"How are you doing?"
Lance lays the towel over his clammy forehead. "Me? Peachy," he replies, which is clearly a lie if his complexion is any sort of tell. Seeing Lance ill takes Eugene back to a time he doesn't like to revisit.
"Try to get some rest." He drops back down to the ground to prepare a glass of water and search for an extra blanket in the chest by his bed. Slipping back into the girls' room, he drops the blanket by Cass' bed and climbs up the ladder to deliver the glass to Rapunzel.
She takes the glass with both hands and offers a sympathetic smile. "I asked for the blanket. Cassandra asked for the water."
He sighs. "Keep it. You need to drink more, anyway. One second, Cass, I'll get you another."
Back into his room, he goes. Hookfoot waves a hand in his direction from Eugene's bed, which he offered up to his single-legged companion (who usually dwells in a hammock) once the ruffian started to show signs of the cold as well. "Eugene, could you close the window?"
Lance interrupts him with a whine. "No, leave it open! The breeze helps."
"I'm freezing!"
Eugene groans, pinching the space between his eyebrows as he shuts the faucet off and hands the glass to Shorty. Surprisingly, he also hasn't picked up the bug going around. As a matter of fact, he's never seen Shorty fall ill before.
As with most things concerning Shorty, he doesn't question it. "Bring that to Cass, will you?"
"Aye aye, Captain."
"How about I close it for now, Lance, and if you feel better later you can sit outside?" Eugene snaps the window shut despite his best friend's protests.
"Eugene?" Rapunzel. Shoot. The blanket.
"One second, Sunshine," he calls back. "I'm on my way."
He takes a breath once he's at the top of her bunk again, unfolding the blanket carefully and handing it to her. "How do you feel? Any better?"
She nods. As a matter of fact, she does look much better than she did yesterday. Rapunzel scoots closer to the wall, patting the empty space beside her. "Why don't you lie down? I think everyone's taken care of, for now."
It's too tempting of an offer to turn down. Besides, Cass is nearly asleep and the others seem to have settled their window debacle, so he carefully tucks himself beside his girlfriend and rests his cheek against her-- thankfully cool-- forehead.
"You're so sweet for taking care of everyone like this." She twists her fingers between his absentmindedly. "But why haven't you gotten sick?"
"Oh, I don't know. More evidence of my excellent genes. Dashing good looks, perfect immune system--"
"Massive ego?" She rolls her head to the side so that she can nudge him with a playful look. He lightly knocks her forehead with his nose in reply.
Just as she settles against his chest again, Lance knocks loudly on the wall. "Eugeeeeene."
Rapunzel's sigh of defeat matches his own. She twists in his arms again to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Come back when you're done."
He winks and squeezes her hand in return. "You got it."
Never one to dwell idly for too long, Rapunzel is up and moving by the next morning. She saddles Fidella and joins him and Max on a search for a water source to collect and boil, both horses (and people) thankful to get some much needed movement after two full days of stagnant rest.
She's excellent help with their friends, too. It's more than relieving to have an extra set of hands in taking care of them, plus the weight of worrying for her health could not be missed less. Even Pascal, who had moped around the day before, is gleeful again, riding the shoulder of his usual companion as she does her rounds.
Despite his watchful gaze keeping a careful eye on her strength, she does seem to have made a full recovery. This bears good news for their other roommates; if they're lucky, everyone should be out of the woods by the next morning.
Which is fantastic news, Eugene thinks, as another call from Lance beckons him back into the boys' room.
"Ugh, I don't know, guys. I'm gonna try to wake him up."
Eugene's groggy vision blurs as his heavy eyelids blink open, settling on a shape that looks distinctly like his girlfriend. The weight beside him on the bed shifts, eliciting a dull pain in his lower back.
"Eugene?" That's definitely Rapunzel. He raises a hand to rub at his eyes until her face is clearly in view. All his other friends surround her, thankfully all looking healthy once more. He, however, can't say that he feels the same. "It's almost noon, you practically slept all morning."
He groans in reply, his attempt to sit up interrupted by a drip somewhere in his throat and a sneeze. Rapunzel frowns, shifting forward until her palm curls around his forehead.
Much to his dismay, her frown deepens. "Oh, Sweetheart. You're burning up."
He groans once again, falling back onto the pillows.
He leans into the cool touch of a compress on the side of his face. Small hands guide his head up as another pillow is tucked beneath his neck. Distantly, he hears his friends snickering.
"Guess you're not as immune as you thought."
Yeah yeah, whatever. He'll get back at whoever that was when he feels like getting up. But for now Eugene closes his eyes, letting sleep claim him once again.