Chapter Text
SunDrop Criminal Justice Institute was the main driving force of law enforcement and crime investigation within the Corona area, currently being led by someone who’s practices were as creative as they were surprisingly effective. Rapunzel had a knack for thinking of solutions on the fly, and more often than not they ended up working out. Heck, not only did they work out , but there was rarely any violence involved too.
It’s mainly thanks to her that Corona’s law enforcement was viewed in such a positive light. In the past, thanks to the rulings of Rapunzel’s father, Corona’s reputation seemed unrecoverable. Unfair trials, rough handling from officers, unsuitable cell conditions, and the list only went on.
Varian, the leader of SunDrop’s branch of investigation, had been a harsh victim to Corona’s history of faulty justice.
He’d agree with most people that things had gotten better, and that the future only seemed bright from here on out. But that didn’t mean he was exactly eager with certain ideas Rapunzel came up with.
Usually he was the brains behind everything. Varian and his team researched crime trends, executing plans and requesting units to be despatched for patrol on a calculated schedule. But, when it came to flushing out Rapunzel’s plans and applying logic where it was desperately needed, Varian usually did the evaluations on his own.
The only people who were ever let in on Varian’s plan analysis was Rapunzel herself, her husband Eugene who worked as the head for dispatch, and other trusted personnel. These people usually included Lance who commonly lent himself to be their inside man, gathering information straight from the source, and his prodiges Red and Angry. If they were lucky Cassandra would make a visit to lend her knowledge as well.
So you could imagine his utter surprise when he gets called in for a very-much-not-welcome emergency board meeting during his lunch break, where he receives the most baffling news imaginable.
“Excuse me, you want me to do what? ”, Varian stared like a deer in headlights, rising from his seat with his hands tensely laid flat against the desk. He looked around the room, desperately attempting to find someone to come to his aide, and all he got in return were a few meek stares and sympathetic headshakes. Even Eugene, who usually would’ve been absolutely against the idea Rapunzel was suggesting, only shrugged hopelessly.
Rapunzel let out an airy giggle, as if she didn’t understand what she just asked Varian to do.
As if she didn’t understand that she was about to send him in disguise to a literal mafia group in order to gather intel. The mafia group that was behind the most recent crime spike in Corona’s southern borders, along the coast of a city known for its shady dealings and strides in the industrial industry. Lovely.
Allow him to repeat: his boss/best friend/sister was sending him on a suicide mission to a gang responsinble for one of the largest crime spikes in all of Coronian history.
“Rapunzel. There’s no way I can do this. I’m-”, Varian lost track of his words for a moment, uselessly sputtering out his frustration instead. He took a deep breath and made a violent hand motion, gesturing towards himself, “I’m the one behind the operation, okay, I’m not meant to do anything actually hands-on! Especially this! ”
“Well-”
“I don’t think you get it!”, his hand gestures now seemed more directed at the ceiling. “My team- I- We- We’ve seen the spike! After a few days of research, and going over the records and reports, we can confirm that this is the biggest resurgence of criminal activity we’ve seen since…”, Varian paused for a moment as his skin went pale. The whole room could almost feel the sudden burst of anxiety radiating from Varian, “ His gang was on the rise.”
Rapunzel’s voice rang in again, more akin to a sigh than anything else.
“There’s no way you can send a rookie in there, let alone me in there! I’m sorry, Rapunzel, I’m sorry , but there’s no way I’m going into… oh, what were they called…”, in his anger, his mind had blanked for a moment.
“They’re known as The Iron Fist, I believe.”, one of Varian’s team members piped up, seemingly all too familiar with his superior’s fits of rage induced rambles.
“Ri-”
A loud scoff could be heard from the head of the room, “Pff, The Iron Fist? How much more cliche and on the nose can you get!? First we’ve got the Saporians, which has no creativity in it at all, and now we’ve got Iron Fist . What dork came up with that?”
Varian quickly recovered from the despair that struck him the moment that name was brought up and rolled his eyes at the man’s scoffing, “I think you’d stop laughing if you saw the records we’ve got stashed up. They’ve done so much in such a short amount of time…” He shook his head, apparently an action worrying enough to spark Eugene’s interest.
“Most of that was just theft though, no?”, Eugene’s voice rang out again.
“They could just be testing the waters. Seeing how much they can get away with before they go in to really strike. We can’t let it get to that point.”, Varian sighed, smoothing out his temples with his twitching fingers.
Rapunzel didn’t seem to catch his anxious behavior as she spoke again, “Yes, and that’s why we need you to go in there.”
“Okay, but why me? ”, Varian seemed desperate as he stared at the woman at the other end of the room.
“Lance wasn’t available, thanks to some terrible flu strain that got him. Angry and Red have been taking care of him, and there’s a chance they’re starting to catch it too. We don’t want to run any risks with anyone’s health.”, Rapunzel sighed
“Oh… tell them that I hope they’re doing alright if you ever visit them.” The raven haired boy paused for a moment before speaking again, “What about Cassandra?”
She shook her head, “Cassandra isn’t available either. She’s occupied with work in another city right now.” Rapunzel saw Varian open his mouth again and answered his unspoken question before he could waste any time asking it, “Eugene’s not an option either. He knows the Boss’s son, and there’s no way he’d be able to go undetected.”
Varian knew he couldn’t argue at that point, admitting defeat in spite of himself. “...Fine. Can you at least explain what I actually need to do?”
“It’s simple, really. I wouldn't have asked you to do something I didn’t think you could pull off if you really tried!”, Rapunzel smiled warmly as she tried reassuring the extremely anxious boy in front of her. It definitely wasn't doing much for him at the time.
Seeing that the task was fruitless, the woman sighed, returning to a more business-like expression, “We need you to infiltrate their lair as one of their own, gather entail on whatever crimes they’re planning next or the reasoning behind the crimes they’ve already committed, and report back to us so we can plan on how to prevent this crime spike from going further up.”
“‘As one of their own’ … Rapunzel, you’re not making me go in a full out disguise , are you?”, Varian filled with dread, not liking where this is going.
She sighed, knowing that this situation needed to be handled with some delicacy. “Look, I know that going in here at all is going to bring up a lot of bad memories of… Andrew and all…”
Everyone in the room cringed at the pained whine Varian made in response to the name, Rapunzel herself giving him an apologetic look before continuing, “But, we need to do this. For th-”
“For the sake of Corona… yeah, I know.”, Varian shuffled nervously on his feet.
Eugene had had enough of his brother’s anxiousness and decided he needed a quick break from the meeting, and perhaps a little cheering up from the older half of team awesome.
The man gave his wife a look, who very quickly got the message and dismissed the meeting for a short break. “I’m sorry, Varian… I hope you can take this time to calm down a bit, alright? I’ll make it up to you.”
The boy gave a shaky nod as she gingerly closed the door, allowing Eugene to take the wheel.
“Hey Bud, y’know, if this is too much for you right now, I’ll make Raps throw the whole thing off. I get that there’s a lot of pressure on you to do this, but what I think everyone in that stuffy meeting room is forgetting is that you’re still just a kid . No matter how mature or intelligent you may be.”, He set a hand on the boy’s shoulder, reassuring in a firm way that felt comfortingly similar to his father.
The offer of escape from this situation seemed to tempt Varian for a moment, before he shook his head with a sigh. “No, Eugene, I want to make up for everything I’ve done in the past. Because what I’ve done hasn’t been pretty… I can’t let the citizens of Corona down again .”
“Kid, you’ve done a lot , y’know. You’ve single handedly helped us with multiple crime surges, and without you, no one else would be able to make any sense of Goldielocks ideas.”
Varian chuckled at him, looking up at the man’s kind eyes amusingly, “I’m sure you’d be able to.”
“Look, I love her to death, but sometimes I just have absolutely no idea what’s going on in that sunny lil’ head of hers.”, Eugene sighed fondly. “You’re one of the only people who seems to connect the dots of every splattered idea she throws onto the canvas. It’s probably cause’ of the freckles.”
To Eugene’s utter delight, there was a chuckle that came from the smaller boy, “Pff- Our freckles?”
“I mean, think about it! Do I have freckles? No, and I can’t understand her.”, He saw Varian’s continued giggling as a sign to continue, “No one else here has freckles and they can’t understand either. But you on the other hand, mister freckles mcgee over here, can understand! It’s the freckles, I’m telling ya!”
The two of them allowed themselves to laugh for a moment, somehow only now realizing how much they missed moments where the two of them could just be brothers happily goofing around with each other. Varian waited for the laughter to die before saying something he knew would bring down the mood again, wanting to cherish this happy moment for as long as he could.
“Seriously though. Nothing I ever do is going to make up for the things I’ve done. I-I…”, Varian took a deep breath before running down the list, “I accidently put my father in a coma just for starters , I stole things from Rapunzel that I thought would help, I kidnapped her mother in order to lure Rapunzel into giving me one of her ‘miracle cures’, when that didn’t work I attempted to kill Rapunzel and her parents, and to top it all off I helped a literal gang take over the city.”
Eugene thought for a moment of what to say before deciding to actually speak, “Well, think about Cassandra. She’s done a lot of bad things to Rapunzel too, heck, she’s done a lot of bad things to you , and you forgave her, right?”
“Well… I mean yeah but-”
“But nothing, Varian. If you can forgive her, I think it’s about time that you considered forgiving yourself.”, Eugene spoke firmly, however each of his words dripped in such a tender care that for the first time in a while, Varian was able to feel like he was worth something again.
The older man filled the silence of the room himself, “So once again, let me offer this; if you think this is going to be too much of a reminder to you of things in the past, you don’t have to do this. I’d never force you too, and I’d never let anyone else here force you to either. Not even Rapunzel. You’re safe now, I want to make sure you’re able to feel like you are.”
Varian smiled at Eugene, genuinely touched by his concern. “I’ll be okay… maybe. Worst case scenario, I’ll call you up at some point if I need some consoling.”
“You have no idea how proud I am of you kiddo, about just the fact you’re willing to reach out. You’ve been making a lot of progress.”, He ruffled the boy’s hair fondly, “I’ll be there when you call. You can count on that.”, and when Eugene said that Varian knew for a fact that he really could.
The door cracked open slightly and Rapunzel peaked inside, receiving a thumbs up from both men to continue the meeting. She mouthed a small ‘thank you’ to her husband before hugging Varian tight. To anyone else it just seemed like Rapunzel was showing simple affection, but Varian knew it was a silent sorry, a sorry that he assumed was being applied to multiple things.
‘I’m sorry you have to do this.’ ‘I’m sorry for overwhelming you.’ ‘I’m sorry for not realizing you needed a break.’ Whichever one she meant, whether it was one or all three of them, didn’t matter to Varian when he returned her protective hold in a way that said 'It's okay.’
The freckled siblings smiled at each other before Rapunzel returned to her rightful place at the head of the room. Apparently it was silently agreed upon that Eugene would stay right where he was next to Varian, which the boy wouldn’t complain about when the man was literally acting as his emotional support through this whole meeting.
“Alright, break over, and funnily enough, the meeting is just about to end too! But, I have something to present.”, She smiled nervously.
Varian expected a few things from what her sentence implied.
Perhaps another powerpoint presentation on one thing or another. Maybe an informational video. Something along those lines.
Most certainly not whatever monstrosity Rapunzel pulled out from behind the desk.
It wasn’t even that bad, in retrospect. The outfit was actually nice . It was sharp, stylish, and tactful. It seemed pretty fitting for a gang that was settled in a city where materialism basically defined everything .
But to Varian, who knew this was the uniform of an actual gang . A uniform of an actual gang that he was going to wear. It was actual nightmare fuel.
From there the meeting had basically already ended, because Varian was pretty much checked out. The thought of that stupid suit was tucked into the crevices of his mind, where he knew they would forcefully come out to haunt him the next day when he actually had to wear the damned thing.
Later he was definitely going to bitch to his friends about this.
---
Varian most certainly bitched to his friends later about it.
Of course he couldn’t just give out confidential information, even if it was to his three best friends. None of them even knew he was acquainted with anyone in law enforcement, let alone that he literally works for law enforcement, so he always had to get creative when it came to talking about it.
He lied by saying he had gotten dared to go to some random Senior’s party pretending to be some random Junior. It was a stupid lie, but Varian had said enough stupid lies for it to fit with the rest pretty cohesively. Just another ‘Varian Shenanigan’ as they liked to call it.
“Oh? Do you really have no choice? You could always just back out of a dare, y’know.”, Nuru scoffed, clearly over any sort of highschool drama despite barely dealing with any herself thanks to being the daughter of a stupidly rich family.
“Oh-ho-ho, I wish .”, Varian had to come up with something on the fly, some random excuse that Nuru and Hugo would buy. He had to worry a little less about Yong, thanks to the fact he still had enough child-like-naivety to not question things too much. “These jerks have blackmail on me.”
“What do you out of all people need to hide, hair stripe?”, Hugo scoffed.
Almost too many things ran through his mind in response to that question. ‘Oh, nothing, just my past crimes, the fact that I’m working as a higher up for Corona’s main Criminal Justice Institute, and my crippling feelings for you.’ is what Varian would’ve said if he could afford being honest. But instead he simply shot a knowing look to Nuru, letting her be the one to decide what this secret of his would be.
To clarify, Varian hadn’t told her about anything outside of his struggles with school drama or his homelife, so Nuru knew nothing about the first two things within Varian’s passive-aggressive internalized reply to Hugo’s question. But what she did know about was that last one. It was something she teased Varian for quite frequently in fact, because who in their right mind, goes off and falls for Hugo of all people?
So of course that’s what she decided to go with as her eyes sparked in realization. “Well, I’d say you’re already pretty obvious about that .”
Yong’s mouth formed the shape of a small ‘o’ as he caught on to what Nuru was talking about, “Yea! I mean even I know?? The only person who doesn’t is, well, Hugo.”
In response to that Hugo made an offended squawk, “Oh, we’re on about this again! When are the three of you just going to tell me ?”
The three shorter and younger teens all exchanged looks with each other knowingly, before Varian piped up to try and quell Hugo’s playfully hurt expression, “If we told you, you’d spill it out to the wrong person!”
Hugo rolled his eyes at that, “Oh please sweetcheeks, as if that’s stopped you from telling me about things before.”
Varian chuckled, raising his brow, “Is that you admitting you suck at keeping secrets?”
“I keep plenty of secrets, thank you.”
“Oh, excuse me, what I meant was, are you admitting that you suck at keeping other people’s secrets?”, He batted his lashes at the boy, his blue eyes shining with a playful gleam.
“Look, if this was going to turn on me , I wouldn’t have brought anything up!”, Hugo readjusted his glasses, giving a teasing pout as the room fell into a familiar comfortable silence. For as pompous and unfazed Hugo tried acting though, it seemed he couldn’t let this go however as he spoke again, “Seriously though, it’s about me, isn’t it? I mean Yong said everyone but me knew.”
The blue eyed boy’s face turned bright red, fear creeping in on him as the older boy inched closer and closer to unveiling one of his many secrets.
“You could say that.”, Nuru spoke without missing a beat and enjoyed watching as the red tinting Varian’s cheeks began to stain them an even brighter hue.
Hugo raised his brow, his eyes darting between Nuru’s smirk and Varian’s flustered reaction as the words of their conversation bounced in his head. He’d never consider himself to be dumb or dense, not in the slightest. So obviously the hope filled idea of Varian having feelings of him was becoming likely in his mind.
Too bad for Varian and himself though was the fact that he had to act dense for both of their sakes. Hugo’s position was simply too dangerous, he didn’t want to put Varian in such a vulnerable position. Just the fact that they were friends was already pushing it. He could’ve never hoped for anything more, no matter how much he longed for those ocean eyes to stare into his all day...
The blonde surprised himself with that thought. He had never been the type to be overly lovey-dovey, nor had he even been the type to think about the long term when it came to relationships. But with Varian… it was different. Oh sun was it different.
He couldn’t act on those feelings though. No matter how new or thrilling or enticing they were for him, there were too many risks.
If things were different, maybe Hugo would’ve given it a shot. If Varian knew already of the risks he would’ve been taking by allowing himself to love Hugo and have Hugo love him in return, perhaps. If Varian was willing to accept Hugo despite the life of crime he was adopted into, by chance. Maybe then Hugo would take advantage of Varian’s not-so-secret feelings for him and sweep him off his feet.
But things weren’t that way. So he couldn’t. Not yet at least.
Hugo feigned innocence in the form of another lie, “Well great, Nuru , that sure helps a ton with me figuring it out.”
The girl rolled her eyes, “Are you kidding me!? Augh, what are you? Dense? Maybe if I push you into a pool you’ll sink to the bottom too, pebble brain .” No matter how annoyed she was with Hugo for seemingly not picking up something so obvious , the fondness in her voice made her teasing apparent.
The taller boy ended up chuckling, standing up abruptly and stretching out his muscles. It seemed Varian had to leave now too since he was silently collecting his things. The chirp of Varian’s ringer almost confirmed Hugo’s thoughts as the boy cursed under his breath. As if the two of them were in sync, the green eyed boy began to feel the distinct buzzing of his phone from his pocket, it’s vibration sending chills down his spine.
“I’d ahm… better get going. My sister is expecting me, and I gotta get some rest for that stupid dare I’d gotta do tomorrow.”, Varian sighed, already making sheepish steps away from the group.
“I’m expected to be home already now too. I’ll see you all some other time.”, Hugo, unlike Varian, made no hesitation to break away from the rest. He was in a hurry, mind you, so it wasn’t like he was eager to get away from his friends.
“Well someone was excited to leave.”, It didn’t mean Nuru wasn’t allowed to make a joke about it either way though.
Yong chuckled, ripping open another pack of fruit snacks and popping one in his mouth. “Tell Rapunzel I say hi!! Oh, and my mom baked her cookies for babysitting me last week too, she can come by anytime to pick them up.”
Varian chuckled, nodding, “Okay, will do!”
“Oh, and V! Good luck on your dare .”, Nuru teasingly put an emphasis on the word.
Little did she know how bad Varian really needed that luck.
“Har har, very funny. Be safe, I'll let you guys know if anything exciting happens.”, he turned away fully now, briskly walking away. With a simple tap the phone lit up, and Varian was met with a fresh set of expectant texts from his boss, reminding him that it was too late to back out of the job he was so kindly forced into accepting.
“Oh sun.”, suddenly the situation seemed a lot more real than it did before. He was really doing this.
Varian was only now realizing how bad he’d need that luck too.