Chapter Text
All she saw was white. Whiteness everywhere, blinding her, trapping her. Where could she run to? She ran and ran, to where? She did not know. She stopped when saw a figure in the distance.
“Eugene? Is that you?”
The man made no attempt to face her. He did not speak.
“Eugene? Hello?” Still nothing.
Rapunzel stepped up to the figure and yanked him by the arm, forcing him to face her. She was revolted by the face that greeted her.
Eugene’s once charming face had been reverted back to a menacing glare that could only be worn by the one and only Flynn rider. Scars covered his features, and a worded tattoo marked over the side of his neck. His original medium length hair had overgrown to reach his back, and his eyebrows were slitted on either side of his face.
She leaned forward to see what the tattoo was depicting, and once the princess saw the letters written on his neck she gasped. “Stalyan” in bold font covered Flynn’s tanned neck. This was not Eugene.
“She knew how to love me.”
Rapunzel stumbled backwards, startled from his harsh tone.
“I-I do love you!”
The rogue gave a frightening laugh, “You’ll never love me like Stalyan did.”
Rapunzel felt the tears welling up in her eyes but she wouldn’t dare let them fall. The whiteness surrounding them began to dim.
“You’ll never touch me like Stalyan did.” He towered over her. Rider smirked. And not the type of flirty, playful smirk Eugene would give her from time to time. No. This smirk was evil and crooked.
She tried to move away from him, but suddenly felt the backing of some type of invisible wall behind her. Rapunzel felt her heart rate quicken as the thief aggressively smashed his arm right above her brunette haired head. The whiteness continued to drain away, there was barely any light now, all she could make out was the chilling eyes of Flynn Rider.
He leaned down and positioned his face directly in front of hers, all while keeping his arm pinned above her. “You’ll never know me like Stalyan did.”
The princess woke up gasping, drenched in sweat, the bed sheets were sticking to her like glue. She ripped them off of her and sat up. It was just a dream. Another terrible dream about being replaced. Replaced by her.
Rapunzel sighed and stood from her bed. She glanced at the clock. It was one in the morning. There was no way she could go back to sleep right now, not unless she saw him.
Rapunzel padded her feet across her bedroom, only stopping to throw on a robe over her sheer purple nightgown, before continuing to walk to Eugene’s room.
It was against royal protocol she knew, for her to be in the same room as him during night hours, and definitely against the rules for her to be snuggling up with him in bed together, but
Eugene was already accustomed to the princess sneaking into his room since returning her to the castle. He wouldn’t mind.
She quietly hummed a familiar tune to herself as she made her way through the hallways. No guards were posted in resident hallways past midnight, so there wasn’t a chance she would be caught sneaking to her boyfriend’s room in the middle of the night. Not unless her mother or god forbid her father happened to be getting a midnight snack right about now.
The walk to Eugene’s room was short. Once reaching her destination, she stood at his door. Rapunzel hesitated knocking, that nightmare awakened some scary thoughts in her head that she had been trying to rid herself of.
She hated the fact that Eugene had met Stalyan before she herself was able to meet him. Stalyan was not a woman to be messed with. The fact that she’d attempted to basically kidnap Eugene and force him into a marriage all while holding his best friend’s life over his head said enough.
It made her wonder how Eugene had fallen for her in the first place. Rapunzel saw Flynn Rider as someone who messed with grown, experienced women, and while Eugene had thrown out the Flynn persona a long time ago, it still technically meant that Eugene had been with other women.
She stood in front of the door for a bit longer, fidgeting with her fingers together, still lingering on the somewhat unnerving past of Eugene Fitzherbert.
When she finally decided to push open the door, she was met with Eugene’s half bare body in front of her, leaning with his bicep on one side of the door frame.
“Hey sunshine.”
The fact that he was already up told Rapunzel that he probably heard her coming through the hallway, she knew he had very keen hearing.
“Hey.”
They stood in silence for a few moments. Eugene noted Rapunzel’s bloodshot eyes, her entire face was covered in a light layer of sweat too.
“Are you alright blondie?” He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
“Yup.” She nodded and attempted to smile, seemingly trying to convince herself that she was indeed, alright.
Eugene raised an eyebrow, and gave her a questioning look.
He held her gaze carefully, studying her.
Rapunzel kept smiling, and then, she felt tears, tears running down her face. She broke out into a sob and clutched at Eugene’s chest, he held her close to him, running soothing fingers through her brunette locks.
Eugene wrapped his arms around and under the princess’s legs, to hoist her up to him.
“Let’s get out of the hallway.”
She didn’t say a word as she let herself be carried by him to his bed. He kissed her forehead before setting her down on the sheets, and moved himself to sit down next to her. It hurt him immensely to see her cry.
Eugene let her weep into him, he whispered sweet, loving words into her ear, hoping to make her feel at least a little bit better.
His chest was damp with tear stains when Rapunzel finally finished crying, but, at least she was done.
The only light illuminating Eugene’s bedroom was the foggy moonlight that seeped through his window, other than that, the room was entirely dark. He glanced down at Rapunzel, she was still shaking in his arms, and even though her face was not visible to him, he knew that the girl was still trying to collect her thoughts.
He didn’t exactly want to pry, Eugene promised to be patient with her when he first returned her to the castle. He knew she needed space from time to time, but right now, she needed him.
“Punzie.” He nudged her cautiously.
She slowly lifted her head up to face him, and he brought his nose down to hers bopping it lightly, which drew out a small giggle from her.
Eugene released Rapunzel from his hold and watched as she settled herself under the bed covers, then he slipped himself alongside her. He brought the covers up over them and reached an arm out, inviting her to cuddle.
Her eyes twinkled as she accepted his request and she placed one of her thighs between both of his legs. Eugene wrapped a strong arm around her neck and placed another across her stomach, looping a couple of fingers in one of Rapunzel’s robe ties.
“Thanks for this.” She traced over his bare chest as she spoke. “If you weren’t with me I don’t know what I would do with myself.”
“Go crazy, probably.” Eugene teased.
They settled together in his bed, quiet, just content with the feeling of being around each other. Words weren’t really necessary at the moment. Rapunzel actually had started to doze off, when Eugene broke the silence.
“What was your nightmare about?”
She yawned, “Nothing important. Just, not a pleasant dream I guess.”
Eugene untwined his fingers from her robe and took her hand that was grazing his torso in his hand. “Blonddieeeeee.”
“I’m fine Eugene, really, I don’t want to talk about it.”
He squeezed her hand firmly, making sure even in the utter darkness of her room hold eye contact with the princess. She seemed a bit irritated now, and now Eugene felt that maybe he’d pressed too much.
“Are you sure? You’ll probably feel a lot better if you do-”
“I said I’m fine.”
Eugene froze, completely alarmed by the unexpected tone of Rapunzel’s voice. It was harsh and cold, the complete opposite of how she usually spoke to him, even if she was mad.
“It’s okay Rapunzel, you don’t have to talk to me about it.” His voice was barely above a whisper as he dropped her hand. He shifted to lean away from her, not out of anger, he just felt a little hurt.
She also moved herself, and sunk down under the covers with his back in her face. She winced as she felt his confident and charming demeanor fall to dejection.
Rapunzel wasn’t upset with Eugene, she wanted to tell him everything. Everything about the dream with Flynn Rider telling her Stalyan was a better partner. Everything about still being haunted by the way Stalyan tried to take him away from her. But she didn’t know how to.
‘If you tell him he’ll just think you’re insecure, and then what? Maybe that’ll just make him want to go back to Stalyan, and then you’ll be all alone, again, forever…’
She fell into despair as her thoughts crowded her mind, all negative things about being rejected and lonely. Peering up from the sheets, she could see the back of Eugene’s head rising and falling from his pillow in a slow, steady rhythm. He was asleep now.
“I’ll tell you all of it, all my fears, all my worries and dreams, I will tell you, and sometime soon I hope. I promise I will.” She murmured the words like a desperate prayer into his neck.
Well Eugene sure was glad he had learned how to fake sleep, her words put him at ease for the rest of the night. He peered back at her now sleeping form and grinned.
“I love you.”