Chapter Text
Eugene was shuffling around the chateau in his fluffy slippers and warmest pajamas. He’d claimed the poofiest chair and fluffiest lap blanket as well as dragging the chair to the prime spot closest to the fireplace. He’d lost track of the amount of hot cocoa mugs he’d been sipping, but Cassandra “helpfully” reminded him by demanding to know why he was on his sixth mug of the stuff. It was snowing lightly outside.
“Just because you’re the Ice Empress of Corona doesn’t mean the rest of us have to like this weather,” he snapped.
“If you weren’t such a snow curmudgeon, maybe I wouldn’t have to try and razz you out of it!” Cassandra reasoned, “This weather is so rare and so fun!!”
“Maybe for you,” mumbled Eugene softly, his eyes staring unseeingly into his cocoa mug. Rapunzel was outside gathering clean snow for their water supply. The three of them took turns doing this chore and Rapunzel seemed to genuinely enjoy it and for once….it was one task he was grateful to pass by whenever she volunteered to take his place. Lance, who was too chicken to even be talked into going with them, had kept his chicken-ass self back in Corona. “In Vardaros, winters are typically vastly different,” he corrected Cass. “And that’s only one place I’ve lived or traveled through that has bad weather in the winter.”
Cassandra considered him….truly considered, and replied, “I see.” She meant for Eugene to pick up the conversational ball, but she was uniquely terrible at dealing with touchy-feely subjects, and this was definitely one of them for Eugene. Ah well. Best to just say it anyway…. “Do you wanna...talk...about it?”
It was clunky and stilted but Eugene could tell she was nonetheless trying to be sincere. Still he was about to rebuff her when Rapunzel rejoined from the galley kitchen, saying, “I think you should, Eugene. She needs to know and she’s listening.”
“Even though most of these things are total downers?” he asked softly, while idly twirling the spoon in his mug.
“You might be needlessly dramatic sometimes, Fitzherbert, but you rarely ever deeply discuss anything….real. Rapunzel’s right. Out with it,” Cassandra insisted.
Eugene sighed -- undramatically -- and raked a hand over his hair. “All right, well, you can’t say I didn’t warn you guys….”
~~~~~~~((O))~~~~~~~
Little Eugene had just been given a donated winter coat. That coat came the closest to actually fitting him amongst the few others he’d tried on. It was warm and had nice buttons and he liked the way the corduroy felt under his fingertips when he touched the fabric.
He went outside to show Arnie and his other few friends the nice sky blue coat. Yet before Eugene could even find his buddies, however, he was stopped by the Grundersen twins. Their red hair was closest to what Eugene imagined was what crazy-angry would look like if it were a color. Just one of those twins was more than twice Eugene’s size and the pair of them had backed him into a corner of the building outside. Not again…. thought Eugene.
Left with nowhere else to run, little Eugene held up his arms in front of his face and gritted his teeth repeating, “Don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me!!” as if it were a mantra. “Give us the coat, runt,” the meaner one ordered.
From behind his arms-shielding, Eugene looked cock-eyed at this twin and said, “But why? It won’t even fit you!”
Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. The twin who was talking to him had reached over the top of Eugene’s head and grabbed the back of the collar of the coat, briefly lifting him right off the ground. He threw Eugene down in some wet snow and proceeded to pin him in place with some really sharp icicles. It was their latest trick -- stabbing their victims in place like specimen bugs.
Eugene slid down and only barely escaped being pinned through either shoulder. This new coat took the brunt of the punishment.
The quieter twin had grabbed handfuls of snow and was white-washing Eugene’s face with the slush until his face was raw, chapped, and frozen enough that he couldn’t really feel anything.
It seemed like an eternity, but Eugene finally managed to scramble out of their grasp, but it wasn’t without sacrificing possession of that new (to him) warm coat. In fact, neither he nor anybody else saw it again.
Although Eugene had eventually been given a replacement, it wasn’t nearly as warm, it was ill-fitting, and he’d actually got so cold that winter, he caught his first case of pneumonia. Not only that, but the Grundersen twins tormented him and white-washed him more or less every winter day for nearly five years. It was such a "special" season.
~~~~~~~((0))~~~~~~~
Cassandra sat back and studied Eugene with renewed regard. “And this isn't your worst story?” she asked askance.
In response, Eugene raised his eyebrows and took a particularly long slurpy pull from his hot cocoa mug. “Were those Grundersens the Stabbingtons in their younger days?” she asked astutely.
“Very good,” Eugene clapped sarcastically. “And yes, none other. I got sick a lot during my days at the orphanage. Most of us smaller kids did.”
“Why didn’t the orphanage do anything to stop them from accosting you?” Cass all but demanded. Eugene would’ve laughed bitterly, but instead it came out as a wan half-hearted chuckle. “You really don’t understand sibling dynamics, do you? If I had told the nuns anything, the twins would’ve amped up their attacks. As long as I shut up and said nothing, they kept their attacks down to just once a day. Most of the time.”
“What finally got them to stop?” Rapunzel asked quizzically. And Eugene’s face unexpectedly lit up with a delightsome conspiratorial smirk. “I finally got big enough to outrun them and eventually humiliate them in front of the others one too many times.”
Cassandra snorted. “Of course,” she replied with a half-smile.
Then Eugene shrugged and grinned, “But what can I say? I do have them to thank for turning me into a fighter, though. A real scrapper.”
“So you said you have even worse examples?” Cass prodded.
“Okay, so you wanna know? Then you’re gonna have to agree to stick with every single story, right here and now,” Eugene insisted. “No backing out halfway through,” he said seriously. “I’m not gonna dredge all this up for nothing.”
“Agreed,” Cassandra said easily. “You know I’ll stick around,” Rapunzel said softly, reaching out a hand to Eugene. He grabbed her hand and gave it a little squeeze before continuing…..